Changes in Official Fees in Belarus

On December 29, 2020, the Belarussian president signed into law a bill introducing amendments to the country's Tax Code, including provisions related to intellectual property. Effective date: January 1, 2021.

Pursuant to the new law, most official fees for registration of inventions, utility models, and industrial designs (in the basic unit denomination*) were decreased by 30%.

Accordingly, the official fees for said IP rights in BYN decreased by about 25%. The same decrease applies to the annuities charged by the Eurasian Patent Office for maintaining in force Eurasian patents in Belarus.

Official fees not mentioned in the new law (particularly, trademark fees) remained the same in the basic unit denomination, which means that their BYN value increased in line with the annual indexation of the basic unit.

*The official fees in Belarus are denominated in basic units. The value of a basic unit in Belarussian rubles (BYN) is indexed on an annual basis. Accordingly, on January 1, 2021, the basic unit value was increased from 27 to 29 BYN.