Changes

The USPTO requires maintenance fees to be paid by the patent assignee. For each patent a firm owns, it must assert large, micro, or small entity status. According to the America Invents Act, both small and micro firms receive fee discounts on a majority of maintenance fees. The fee amount each firm pays is specified online by the USPTO on its comprehensive maintenance fee schedule. [http://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/fees-and-payment/uspto-fee-schedulemaintenance fee schedule.] By recording the status asserted for each issued patent, the McNair center is able to identify which firms identify as small and micro firms, establishing the research potential for the [[Little Guy Academic Paper]]. Once identified, these small and micro firms may be used to track the effects of patent litigation on patent ownership and a small or micro firm's livelihood. The fee table was used to create the [[Fee Status Table| fee status table]], facilitating the identification and tracking process.

Patent represents patent number and appnum represents application number for the patent in question. Size records whether the firm that owns the patent is considered large by the USPTO or if it has asserted [[Small Entity vs. Micro Entity| small or micro entity status]], according to the guidelines set by the America Invents Act. When the entry is N, the firm is large, and when the entry is Y, the firm is small. An M indicates a micro firm. Filedate is the date the patent application was filed. Gdate is the date the patent was granted. Feedate corresponds to when each maintenance fee payment was received by the USPTO. Each fee has a specific code defined by the USPTO. [http://www.mcnaircenter.org/mediawiki/images/2/2b/MaintFeeEventsFileDocumentation.pdfdefined by the USPTO.] The table has a composite key consisting of a unique combination of patent, feedate, and feecode. The table has multiple entries per patent number as maintenance fees are paid every four years and patent owners may have to pay other maintenance fees including patent renewal or late fee charges.