美国专利申请人Small Entity与Micro Entity问题

• The owner is a "person" (i.e. individual or individuals)who has not assigned, granted, conveyed, or licensed, and is under no obligation under contract or law to assign, grant, convey, or license, any rights in the invention. An inventor or other individual who has transferred some rights in the invention to one or more parties, or is under an obligation to transfer some rights in the invention to one or more parties, can also qualify for small entity status if all the parties who have had rights in the invention transferred to them also qualify for small entity status either as a person, small busine****oncern, or nonprofit organization under this section.;or
  
• The owner is a "small busine****oncern", meaning a business which meets the size standards set forth in 13 CFR 121.801 through 121.805 to be eligible for reduced patent fees.
  

Those standards (13 CFR 121.802) say that a concern eligible for reduced patent fees is one:

(a) Whose number of employees, including affiliates, does not exceed 500 persons; and
(b) Which has not assigned, granted, conveyed, or licensed (and is under no obligation to do so) any rights in the invention to any person who made it and could not be classified as an independent inventor, or to any concern which would not qualify as a non-profit organization or a small busine****oncern under this section.

The regulations of the SBA define how you count an "employee", what is an "affiliate", and over what period that counting is done. If you really want to find out exactly, you will need to review all of the regulations and your employment records very carefully, and account for all of the "employees" who worked for your business or its "affiliates" at any time during the previous 12 months. If your busine****oncern (counting its parent company, subsidiary companies and any affiliated companies)  was anywhere near 500 employees at any point, you should probably pay Large Entity fees, just to be safe.
Questions related to standards for a small busine****oncern may be directed to: Small Business Administration, Size Standards Staff, 409 Third Street, SW., Washington, DC 20416;or

• The owner is a nonprofit organization, meaning (37 CFR 1.27(a)(3)) any nonprofit organization that:
  

(i) Has not assigned, granted, conveyed, or licensed, and is under no obligation under contract or law to assign, grant, convey, or license, any rights in the invention to any person, concern, or organization which would not qualify as a person, small busine****oncern, or a nonprofit organization; and
(ii) Is either:

(A) A university or other institution of higher education located in any country;
(B) An organization of the type described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 19 86 (26 U.S.C. 501(c)(3)) and exempt from taxation under section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. 501(a));
(C) Any nonprofit scientific or educational organization qualified under a nonprofit organization statute of a state of this country (35 U.S.C. 201 (i)); or
(D) Any nonprofit organization located in a foreign country which would qualify as a nonprofit organization under paragraphs (a)(3)(ii)(B) of this section or (a)(3)(ii)(C) of this section if it were located in this country.