French Intellectual Property Code
In forceThe reduction in royalties provided for in Article L. 612-20 is as of right for natural persons.
If the applicant is a legal entity, the request for reduction must, on pain of inadmissibility, be submitted in writing to the Director General of the Institut national de la propriété industrielle within one month of the filing of the patent application. In addition, the applicant must, within the same time limit, produce a declaration stating that it belongs to the category of non-profit organisations in the field of education or research or to those of companies with fewer than 1,000 employees and no more than 25% of whose capital is held by another entity that does not meet the same condition.
Once obtained, the benefit of the reduction is definitively acquired and applies to all procedural and maintenance fees in force excluding annual fees beyond the seventh, to the search report fee concerning a foreign priority application accompanied by a search report recognised as equivalent to the national search report by decision of the Director General of the National Institute of Industrial Property, to the fees for restoration appeal, rectification of material errors, entry in the national register and publication of the translation or revised translation of a European patent or of the claims of a European patent application.
When a patent application is filed in co-ownership, all co-applicants must belong to the categories referred to in Article L. 612-20 in order to claim the benefit of the reduction.
The amount of the fine imposed in the event of a false declaration is ten times the amount of the royalties that were due.
