According to the regulations of the European Patent Convention (EPC),

A European patent application containing more than 15 claims at the time of filing the claims incurs a claims fee in respect of each claim in excess of that number.
The claims fees must be paid within one month of filing the claims.

The claims may be filed at the following stages:

(a)on the filing date or on the date on which the divisional application is filed ,

(b)after the filing date, in a timely response to a communication from the EPO indicating their absence under Rule 58 ,

(c)after the filing date, by applicants on their own initiative before the EPO sends a communication according to Rule 58.

If the claims fees have not been paid in due time, they may still be validly paid within a non-extendable grace period of one month from notification of a communication under Rule 45(2) pointing out the failure to observe the time limit. If a claims fee is not paid within the grace period, the corresponding claim is deemed abandoned and the applicant is notified accordingly.

Features of a claim deemed abandoned under Rule 45(3) and not otherwise to be found in the description or drawings cannot subsequently be reintroduced into the application and, in particular, into the claims.

According to the actually valid EPO Schedule of fees , if the European patent application contains more than 15 claims, the Claims fee for the 16^th to the 50^th claim amounts 275,- EUR per claim and the Claims fee for the 51^st and each subsequent claim amounts 685,- EUR per claim. In accordance with the above mentioned the applicants who wish to avoid payment of the claims fee should take care their patent application not to contain more than 15 claims.

Prepared July 29^th , 2025
by European Patent Registration and Consulting Services
provided by Lawyers Antevski – European patent law services
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