Given the complexity of the excess claims fees rules for Singapore patent applications, you might be asking yourself “How do I determine if an excess claims fee is payable on a patent application?” “What is the excess claims fee for a patent application when responding to a Written Opinion” and “What is the excess claims fee for a patent application on grant?”.

We set out a number of rules which may be used to calculate whether or not excess claims fees are payable when requesting examination or combined search and examination, when responding to a Written Opinion (where applicable) and when paying the grant fee.

Examination Request Filed by 31 August 2025

The following rules apply to applications where examination (or combined search and examination) is requested by 31 August 2025. They may be used to calculate whether or not excess claims fees are payable when requesting examination or combined search and examination, and when paying the grant fee:

  1. Count the number of claims in the application being presented for a request for examination or a request for combined search and examination. Call this X.

    • If X is 20 or below, there is no excess claims fee payable at this stage

    • If X is over 20, you need to pay excess claims fees of S$40 * (X - 20)

  2. Count the number of claims in the application being presented for grant. Call this Y.

    • If Y is 20 or below, there is no excess claims fee payable on grant

    • If Y is over 20, but the same as or less than X, there is no excess claims fee payable on grant (i.e., 20 < Y ≤ X )

    • If Y is over 20 and Y is more than X you need to pay excess claims fees of

      • S$40 * (Y - X) if X was more than 20

      • S$40 * (Y - 20) if X was 20 or less

    • If Y is over 20 and Y is less than X, then there is no excess claims fee payable on grant and you will not get a refund for the claims that have been deleted

Examination Request Filed On or After 1 September 2025

The following rules are apply to applications where a request for examination (or a request for combined search and examination) is filed on or after 1 September 2025, and a response to a Written Opinion is filed on such a case on or after 1 April 2026.

  1. Count the number of claims in the application being presented for a request for examination or a request for combined search and examination. Call this X.

    • If X is 15 or below, there is no excess claims fee payable at this stage

    • If X is over 15, you need to pay excess claims fees of S$80 * (X - 15)

  2. Count the number of claims in the application when responding to each Written Opinion filed on or after 1 April 2026. Call this Y.

    • If Y is 15 or below, there is no excess claims fee payable when responding to the Written Opinion

    • If Y is over 15, but the same as or less than X, there is no excess claims fee payable when responding to the Written Opinion (i.e., 15 < Y ≤ X )

    • If Y is over 15 and Y is more than X you need to pay excess claims fees of

      • S$80 * (Y - X) if X was more than 15

      • S$80 * (Y - 15) if X was 15 or less

      when responding to the Written Opinion

    • If Y is over 15 and Y is less than X, then there is no excess claims fee payable when responding the Written Opinion and you will not get a refund for the claims that have been deleted

  3. Count the number of claims in the application being presented for grant. Call this Z.

    • If Z is 15 or below, there is no excess claims fee payable on grant

    • If Z is over 15, but the same as or less than the higher of X and Y, there is no excess claims fee payable on grant (i.e., 15 < Z ≤ max(X, Y))

    • If Z is over 15 and Z is more than the higher of X and Y you need to pay excess claims fees of

      • S$80 * (Z - max(X, Y)) if max (X, Y) was more than 15

      • S$80 * (Z - 15) if max(X, Y) was 15 or less

    • If Z is over 15 and Z is less than the higher of X and Y, then there is no excess claims fee payable on grant and you will not get a refund for the claims that have been deleted

Excess Claims Fees: Further Details

No Double Charging

IPOS has not stated explicitly that there will not be any “double charging”, but we expect that this will be the case.

Thus, where an excess claims fee has already been paid on requesting examination or combined search and examination for a claim over 15, that fee will not be charged again on responding to a Written Opinion or on grant, if that claim number is present and the fee has already been paid for that number.

For example, take a patent applicationn where examination is requested on or after 1 September 2025, having 20 claims. Five excess claims fees will have been paid on a request for examination.

When that application grants with the same number of claims, there will be no excess claims fee to be paid (the rationale being that the 5 extra claims will have already been charged previously).

Similarly, for such an application, where the number of claims does not increase beyond 20 at any point during the examination process, no excess claims fees will be payable when responding to a Written Opinion.

…But Also No Refunds!

IPOS will not refund any excess claims fees paid over the course of prosecution, however.

For example, for an application where examination is requested on or after 1 September 2025, where an examination report is requested on a patent application having 20 claims, and on grant there are only 17 claims, you won’t need to pay any excess claims on grant, but at the same time you won’t get your money back for the 2 excess claims fees that were paid in the earlier stage.

Please get in touch with us if you would like more information on how to calculate excess claims fees for a Singapore patent application.

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