Romanian Industrial Property Taxes 20% Higher Starting January 1, 2012

Industrial property taxes are paid by legal entities and natural persons to have their industrial property, inventions, trademarks, industrial drawings and models protected. Patent owners that fail to pay industrial property taxes may lose protection.

The level of the tax may be updated annually, through a Government decision, considering inflation and the exchange rates valid on November 1. The Government decision takes effect on January 1.

On January 1, 2011, industrial property taxes should have been updated using an exchange rate of 4.3 lei to the euro, and not of RON3.6 to the euro, which would have translated into a 20% increase.