For business owners, decision makers, and the attorneys who represent them, perhaps 2022 brought great change. Did your or your client's company expand, downsize or restructure? Did your client, an independent inventor, realize newfound success? With that, profits may change, and the number of employees may change, but what about the already-filed patent applications and existing patents? Change may need to occur in that arena as well.

Patent application fees and patent maintenance fees are based on "entity status." An applicant or owner may qualify as a micro entity, small entity, or large entity, and the status system aims to make patent acquisition and maintenance more affordable for individual inventors, small businesses and nonprofits. Recently, The Unleashing American Innovators Act of 2022, signed into law on Dec. 29, 2022, and now in effect, increased small entity fee discounts from 50% to 60% and micro entity discounts from 75% to 80%. See 117th Cong. Section 7 (2021-2022), available at https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/2773/text; see also USPTO fee schedule, USPTO (Jan. 1, 2023), https://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/fees-and-payment/uspto-fee-schedule#Patent%20Exam%20Fee. This results in lower application filing fees, examination fees, and issue fees, among others. If your client or company filed an application under one type of entity status and now qualifies as a different type of entity, it is imperative to know what type of entity status now applies and when you need to notify the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).