Annual fee generally refers to the annual fee of bank card, also known as the annual fee of bank card account, which is the fee charged by banks to bank card holders for managing and maintaining bank card accounts. The annual fee of credit card is the service fee of credit card, and the annual fees of major banks are slightly different according to the card type. At present, most bank cards, including savings cards (debit cards) and credit cards, charge annual fees, and a certain amount of fees are deducted from the corresponding accounts every year, which is called annual fees.

The annual fee of patent fee means that the patentee pays a certain fee every year from the year when the patent is granted to the end of the patent protection period, and the amount varies from year to year. This fee is the annual fee. It is the obligation of the patentee to pay the annual fee.

After the patent application is granted the patent right, the applicant shall pay the patent registration fee and the annual fee of the year when the patent right is granted at the time of registration. Where an application for a patent for invention for which a patent right has been granted has already paid the maintenance fee for the current year, the annual fee for the current year may not be paid. Future annual fees shall be paid in advance within one month before the expiration of the previous year. More specifically, since the patent year is calculated from the date of filing, the applicant should pay the annual fee for the next year in advance within one month before the corresponding filing date of each year.

From August 1 2007, the annual management fee for bank cards began to be cancelled, and some basic financial service charges of commercial banks were suspended.