Micro-Entity / Small-Entity Fee Reduction
Provides filing fee relief for qualified inventors, including reduced costs for small entities.
Micro-entity status reduces most USPTO patent fees by 80%; small-entity status provides approximately 50% reduction. Applicants self-certify their status before each fee payment; eligibility must be re-evaluated at each payment event. NOT A GRANT: This is a fee discount on USPTO's own regulatory fees. No money flows from USPTO to the applicant. Instrument is closest to endorsement_certification (a non-monetary regulatory status grant). The 'fee_reduction' instrument is not in the current schema; proposed for schema-bump.
Each grant below is a distinct funding opportunity with its own eligibility, scope, and deliverables.