Following the decision of four national offices to stop taking part in the optional national searches that may be requested at the time of filing a Community trade mark, the fee for these searches has fallen from €195 to €144. 16 offices would take part when national searches became optional in March 2008. Ireland, Portugal, Sweden and the UK have opted to withdraw from the system as of 1 January 2009. The 12 national offices continuing to participate are: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Lithuania, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Finland.