Maintenance & Enforcement
Should I keep paying maintenance fees or let the patent go?
The short answer
Run the math honestly: fees arrive at 3.5, 7.5, and 11.5 years and escalate each time, and 53.7% of owners eventually answer this exact question by walking away. Keep paying if the patent is in an active deal pipeline or clearly reads on a live market; stop if it's had years of silence and no strategy.
The full picture
The keep-test: Is anyone practicing this technology? Have you run a real outreach campaign (not just listed it)? Does it still have enough term left to matter? Three honest 'yes' answers justify the fee; three 'no' answers mean the fee is the most expensive lottery ticket you own.
Before letting go, consider the middle options: a final, aggressively priced sale push before the deadline, or a last licensing campaign timed to it. Fees are paid in windows, not on a single day — you have months of grace to decide. If you want an objective keep-or-drop read on yours, that's one of the most common questions we score.
Where does your patent stand?
The Beyond the Patent Commercialization Score answers that — a professional, factor-by-factor read on your patent's licensing, sale, build, and partner potential.
Related questions
General information for patent owners — not legal advice. Read the disclaimer.