The deal means that international filing fees for PCT applications will fall from SFr 1,400 ($1,386) to SFr 1,330 ($1,316).
The decision of an extraordinary meeting of the General Assemblies was part of a budget package agreed last week in Geneva – six months after many member states refused to back the IP Organization’s proposed 2008/09 budget, adding to the pressure on its beleaguered director-general Kamil Idris to resign.
Since then, Idris has announced that he will step down from WIPO a year earlier than planned.
The chairman of WIPO’s General Assembly, Martin Uhomoibhi, said the decision was due to the “active consultations and negotiations aimed at resolving all pending issues”.
“I am personally touched by this cooperative spirit,” he added.
The US government, which was one of those most critical of WIPO’s leadership during the General Assemblies in October last year, said it welcomed member states’ decision to approve the budget.
In a statement, officials from the US Mission in Geneva said that the reduction in patent fees – the first since 2002 – is expected to save US companies more than $6 million over the next two years.
The new budget deal also gives developing countries a bigger discount on PCT filing fees. The fee reduction will increase from 75% to 90% for countries whose per capita national income is below $3,000, as well as to Antigua and Barbuda, Bahrain, Barbados, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Oman, Seychelles, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago and the UAE.
Director-general Kamil Idris also praised the budget decision. “The adoption of the budget today is a sign of goodwill by all member states ... It reflects mutual understanding that the Organization should move on,” he said.
