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Renewal Generation
Renewals can be generated through the task_rules table, like any other task. The task_rules table comes preconfigured with patent renewal generation for France and EP (every renewal is generated with an individual rule entry). Exceptions where patent renewals are not annual, i.e. US, Chile and Israel, are also configured in task_rules.
The country table is used for generating patent renewals for each other country recursively based on two renewal task entries in task_rules that have recurring = 1, no country, and years = 19 (do not delete!). The country table has a set of columns for configuring the renewal generation per country:
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renewal_first: the year of the first renewal to pay; -
renewal_base: the event establishing the anniversary (Filed or Granted); -
renewal_start: the event triggering the renewal payments (Filed or Granted); -
checked_on: date at which the parameters were last checked against the national law (NULL when the parameters are at default values of (2, 'FIL', 'FIL') which apply to many countries).
The country table comes with a set of parameters for around 70 countries inserted by the migration script "2020_02_24_192100_implement_generic_renewals".
There are two countries that stand out: Iran, where annuities are due on the anniversary of entry in the PCT national phase, and Hungary, where annuities are triggered upon publication of the Hungarian translation. Iran is not handled for the moment, and the default parameters apply. For Hungary, since the anniversary date is the filing date, the annuities are simply triggered at the creation of the Hungarian national phase.
The countries where the grant is the start event and the filing is the anniversary have varying deadlines for paying the renewals due in the past. By default, all past renewals are generated with the grant date as the due date and it will be up to the user to manage them.
For patents created at a later time, such as a transferred patent portfolio, past renewals are generated up to 6 months back from the date of docketing, to cover the grace period. Older annuities are not generated.
For patents that are managed from the start, the system relies on the matters and events being entered prior to the expected deadlines.
The above rule is also applied when creating an EP validation, where it will be necessary to manage where the next renewal is to be paid (at the EPO or in the country of validation).
Past renewals are generated up to 19 months back, covering the case of direct PCT filings that are nationalized at 31 months and where the first renewal to pay is for the second year.
For renewals due in a divisional application, all past renewals are generated with a deadline 4 months from the divisional filing date (this is actually the rule used in EP and to be checked for other countries). Note that one should not "cheat" on the filing date of a divisional application as done in other systems in order to correctly calculate the deadlines - in phpIP, a "Parent Filed" event is automatically generated which is used as a basis for the calculation.