The TIMELINE MODULE uses the average number
of years to patent examination and granting in each country
to produce a Timeline yearly projection of when costs will
be incurred.
The annuities are then also allocated to
the appropriate years, based on whether annuities begin from
filing or grant date. This projection is produced as an
Excel spreadsheet file.
The Timeline can be used with a two- or
three-stage estimate to project PCT application costs with
ensuing National Phase costs, or a PCT/EPO/EPO Validation
phase timeline projection.
Click
here to download a zipped file containing a sample
Patent estimate including the Timeline spreadsheets.
The user can specify average numbers of
years to examination and grant for any selected countries,
to be used in place of system numbers.
For patents, the year associated with each
stage is shown on the Detail Report, and years are shown for
the annuities in the Annuity table in the Detail Report. The
calculations are also exported to an Excel workbook. One
spreadsheet contains the costs for each country separated into
categories (Official, Associate, In-House, and Miscellaneous);
one spreadsheet contains the costs for each country separated
by stage (Filing, Examination, Granting, and Maintenance); and two others
contain totals for each country, one of which shows the
accumulated costs from the application date to a particular year.
The Timeline projection uses average times
for each stage to be completed. Since this information is
not typically included in fee schedules from foreign
associates, we obtained the average processing times by
communicating with associates and asking them for the
information. The data is included in the monthly update, and
may change as a country's policies change, or as the data
becomes more refined.
While the module does come with
system-defined Timeline data (as described above), the user
can specify the average number of years for completion of
stages of the application. These user-defined averages can
be entered for any selected countries, to be used in place
of system numbers.
When running a Patent estimate, the user
specifies the Priority Date, Application Date and Report
Start/End dates, defined as follows.
Priority Date refers to the date of
priority which will apply to the applications being
estimated.
The Priority Date is initialized by the
program as follows, depending on which type of patent
application is being processed:
-
Patent menu item (first menu item on
initial screen) - Priority Date month/year is set to the
current computer date
-
PCT National phase (second menu item on
initial screen) - PCT Filing Date month/year is set to 30
months before the current computer date
-
EPO Patent Validation (third menu item
on initial screen) - PCT Filing or EPO Filing Date month/year is set to
"x" years before the current computer date.
The value for "x" is the number of years in
"EPO Application Annuities totaled through
Year" specified in the sets of In-House Charges for
annuities.
The Priority Date displayed may be changed
by the user.
The Priority Date affects the following
annuity calculations:
-
The years to which to allocate the
annuities for those countries where the annuities are
based on the filing date of the application
-
The annuity totals for all countries
since the Timeline Module cuts off the annuities 20
years from the Priority Year.
Application Date refers to the date
of the applications being estimated.
The Priority Date and the Application Date would be the same
for a new patent application sent directly to a
country or the PCT. If the patent had been filed elsewhere
first, and was then being sent to the PCT, the Priority
Date would be the date it was originally filed, and the
Application Date would be the date filed in the PCT, which
could be 12 months later.
Amounts that would be incurred outside these dates are set
to zero, and not included in the estimate.
.....................................................................................................................
Click
here to download a zipped file containing a sample
Patent estimate including the Timeline spreadsheets.
(For trademarks, the Timeline projects
application and renewal costs by year.)
