The “Maximum Qualifying Gross Income” for purposes of paying any eligible fee at the micro entity discount is currently $223,740 in the year 2023. If you meet the micro entity requirements, you are eligible for a little more than 80% reduction from most undiscounted fees.

The “micro entity” status was first introduced on March 19, 2013 as a result of the USPTO’s implementation of the America Invents Act (AIA). It offers a steep discount on fees associated with filing and prosecuting U.S. patent applications before the USPTO. The micro entity status may be of particular interest to independent inventors.

To qualify as a micro entity, an applicant must meet all of the following criteria:

• Qualify as a USPTO-defined small entity;
• Not be named on more than four previously filed applications excluding foreign applications or PCT international applications;
• Not have a gross income more than three times the median household income in the previous year from when the fee(s) is paid; and
• Not be under an obligation to assign, grant, or convey a license or other ownership to another entity that does not meet the same income requirements as the inventor.

For inventors, applicants, and parties with an ownership interest in the application whose gross income in the preceding calendar year is not or is partially not in U.S. dollars, it is recommended to use the conversion table found on the Internal Revenue Service webpage titled “Yearly Average Currency Exchange Rates Translating Foreign Currency into U.S. dollars” to quantify your preceding calendar year’s gross income in U.S. dollars.