How to reduce the hidden costs of maintaining patents and trademarks?

How to reduce the hidden costs of maintaining patents and trademarks? 

The payment of maintenance fees (aka renewals or annuities) is required to keep your registered patents, designs and trademarks alive in each country where they are registered. 

These costs add up and need to be budgeted for but also reviewed. I used to work for a business that processed these payments and it always surprised me how many paid these fees irrespective of the expense and sometimes without a good sense of the value they were protecting. 

Regular review
Intellectual property rights should be reviewed on a regular basis but certainly before the payment of maintenance fees. 

Hidden costs
You can pay these fees direct to the government online in the UK and US for example, but if you pay through a third party it will serve you well to review the breakdown of what you are paying. Often the government fee is the largest and the ‘service fee’ a minor part of the cost. However I recommend a thorough review of additional fees including agents fees and especially the foreign exchange / currency handling / currency fluctuation risk fees, as these are sometimes difficult to justify. 

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