COSTA RICA

For applications filed after 25th April 2008, annuities are payable once a patent has been granted in Costa Rica, and can be paid for one or more periods as long as the patent is in full force.  The first due annuity is payable along with the grant fee.  The second due annuity is payable along with any annuities that have accumulated to date, within 2 months of the grant date.  Subsequent annuities then fall due on each anniversary of the local or PCT filing date, but may be paid up until the last day of the month containing that anniversary.  All notifications requesting payment of pending annuities that we received during 2014 and up to October 2015, stated the date for calculating future renewals was the date of the application’s filing in Costa Rica.  However, from November 2015 we have received some notifications consistent with this criterion and some stating the due date for future renewals will be determined by the last day of the month containing the anniversary of the international filing date, and even some stating future renewals will be determined by the last day of the month containing the anniversary of the earliest claimed priority.  Having consulted the Patent Office about this diversity of criteria, they expressed that Executive Decree No. 38308-JP, article 46 stated that each annual fee will be due on the last day of the month containing the anniversary of the application’s filing date, without specifying if such phrase referred to the international or local filing date.  Therefore, they say the interpretation of such article will entirely depend on the Registrar who writes and issues the specific notification requesting payment of accumulated annual fees.  Nevertheless, all notifications received during 2016 have been consistent in taking the date of the application’s international filing as the base for calculating annual fees.