The patent attorney performs his/her activities for a fee and has the right to request a reasonable advance from the client (Section 40, Act No. 417/2004 Coll., the Act on Patent Attorneys and on Amendments to the Act on Measures for the Protection of Industrial Property).
Clients are advised to inquire about the application of the type of fees, or their amount, before the actual legal action, consultations (including telephone consultations), etc.
The fee is set
1. Contractually by a written agreement
The contractual fee must be agreed in writing. The contractual fee may be concluded by email, e.g. by agreeing to an offer for services.
2. Adequately according to the Advocate’s Tariff (AT) (Decree No. 177/1996 Coll., Decree of the Ministry of Justice on Advocates’ Fees and Advocates’ Compensation for the Provision of Legal Services (Advocate’s Tariff)), in the event that a written agreement on contractual fee is not concluded
An act of legal service within the meaning of Section 7 of the Advocate’s Tariff is considered to be “an expression of will aimed in particular at the creation, modification or termination of those rights or obligations which the legal regulations associate with such an expression”.
Examples of acts connected with the filing of a patent application are: representing the applicant, determining the type of application, determining the name of the invention, determining the number of applicants, identifying the applicant(s) (each one), determining the number of originators (each one), identifying the originators, claiming priority, determining the number of patent claims, identification of the corporate invention, identification of the offer of licence, filing of the patent application documents, request for a full examination, (dis)consent to the filing of the patent application, filing under the Administrative Procedure Code, payment of administrative fees, notification to the applicant(s) of the filing of the application. Acts are examples of the joining of two or more matters for which the tariff value is the sum of the tariff values of the joined matters.
The rate of non-contractual remuneration determined in accordance with the AT.
The rate of non-contractual remuneration for a single act of legal service is the tariff value
1. up to CZK 500 – CZK 300,
2. over CZK 500 up to CZK 1000 – CZK 500,
3. over CZK 1,000 to CZK 5,000 – CZK 1,000,
4. over CZK 5,000 to CZK 10,000 – CZK 1,500,
5. over CZK 10,000 to CZK 200,000 – CZK 1,500 and CZK 40 for each CZK 1,000 by which the value exceeds CZK 10,000,
6. over CZK 200,000 to CZK 10,000,000 – CZK 9,100 CZK and 40 CZK for each CZK 10,000 by which the value exceeds CZK 200,000,
7. over CZK 10,000,000 – CZK 48,300 CZK and 40 CZK for each CZK 100,000 by which the value exceeds CZK 10,000,000.
Determination of tariff value
Unless otherwise specified, the tariff value shall be deemed to be the amount of the monetary benefit or the price of the thing or right at the time of commencement of the legal service act to which the legal service relates. In the case of registration of rights, the tariff value is determined by the cost method for the acquisition of the right – from the filing to the granting/registration cumulatively.
If the value of a thing or right cannot be expressed in money or can only be ascertained with disproportionate difficulty, the amount of CZK 50,000 shall be deemed to be the tariff value in matters of industrial or other intellectual property rights (§ 9(4)(b) AT).