Your questions answered

What is a collecting society?

Collecting societies are non-profit making private organisations created to enable rights holders to license certain uses of their works on their behalf, such as public performance of music and photocopying of published material. Different societies collect for different creative interests.

Depending on what type of work you are using, there will be a collecting society who will enable you to use the material under a license. For example, if you regularly copy newspaper articles for distribution around the office, the Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) will provide you with the appropriate license for your needs.

A collecting society will be able to agree licences with users on behalf of owners and will collect any royalties the owners are owed. In many cases a collecting society will offer a blanket licence for all the works by owners it represents.

When do I renew my patent?

To keep your patent in force you must renew it on the 4th anniversary of the filing date and every year after that. You can choose not to renew it or voluntarily cancel it at any time. You can renew your patent up to 20 years.

You can renew your patent up to 3 months before the payment due date. This is the last day of the month in which the anniversary of filing falls. Therefore, If you applied on 10 May, your payment due date is 31 May each year.

We will write to confirm that we have renewed your patent for the next year. If you do not pay your renewal fee by the payment due date we will issue a reminder letter and you can still renew it up to 1 month after the payment due date at no extra charge.

You have a further 5 months in which to renew your patent. However, there is a late payment fee of £24 for each of these months in addition to the renewal fee. If you do not renew your patent within this 6 month period you can still apply to restore your patent.

If your patent is endorsed licence of right, you pay half the renewal fees.

If we grant your patent later than 3 years 9 months after the filing date, this is a late grant and special conditions apply.