Total Patent Fees in India: An Ultimate Guide

Welcome to our comprehensive guide focused on the cost of patent filing in India. If you’re intrigued about how much you might need to invest to protect your innovative idea, this article is tailor-made for you!

We will:

• Break down the steps involved in the patent filing process.
• Provide an estimate of costs associated with each step.
• Explain factors affecting patent costs.
• Outline the typical charges levied by patent professionals in India.

Stay tuned till the end for a detailed cost summary neatly compiled in a table.

So, let’s dive in and unlock the information you need to budget your patent filing effectively. Start your patent journey today!

Patent fees cost structure

Generally, the patent fees in India includes 2 components:

1. Government fees

This is a mandatory cost which every patent applicant has to pay. There are two levels of government fees depending on the entity types, which are mentioned below:

1. Regular entities – This type of applicant generally pay the standard government fees. Typically, the government fees is ₹ 8,000 for filing and ₹ 20,000 for request for examination.
2. Individuals, Startups, SME’s & educational institutes – Applicants falling under this applicant type pay reduced government fees. Generally, 20% of the fees paid by regular entities. The government fee is ₹ 1,600 for filing and ₹ 4,000 for request for examination.

2. Professional fees

This is the fee you would pay to a patent agent or a patent law firm to help you file and prosecute the patent application with the patent office. Reportedly, 75%-95% of the total cost of a patent is payable to the patent expert who is helping you with the patent application. The professional fees for the patent process also depends on multiple factors, some of which are listed below:

• Experience levels – Normally, the expectation is that the service fees increase when the number of gray strands on the experts head increase. Typically, people with more years of experience do charge a higher professional fee. If you are paying a low price for the patent service, it is likely that the person working on your project is someone with less years of experience or you are in luck. So in addition to getting the patent fee quotes, also check the experience level of the person who might work on your patent application.

• Expert type (Individual patent practitioner or patent law firm) – Typically, patent law firms are more expensive than individual patent experts. One important reason for the same is the overhead structure, which increases the costs. Patent law firms generally have a bigger setup, multiple team members, departments, offices which increase the costs for operation that are eventually passed on to the clients. However, many clients are willing to pay for the ease and reliability of working with a company than an individual. On the other hand, individual patent experts don’t have similar overhead cost structure and can offer a better price and attention to your project.

Patent fees for important steps in the Indian patent process

The Indian patent process involves quite a few number of steps and typically takes 3-4 years (reduced to around 1 year with fast track process).

We will focus on looking at all the important steps in the Indian patent process and the kind of costs that are applicable for each step.

Patentability search report

A patentability search is generally the first step in the process. Normally, the cost of a patentability search report will vary dependent on the type of patentability search done and the time spent on it.

• Basic / Knockout patentability search – A knockout search generally is run for a few hours, typically between 2-8 hours to uncover related prior arts. Due to reduced time spend on a basic / knockout search, the charges generally range between ₹ 5,000 to ₹ 10,000.

• Detailed patentability search – A detailed search will typically involve an effort of 2-3 working days. Costs for a detailed search generally ranges between ₹ 10,000 to ₹ 15,000.

• Extensive patentability search – An extensive search is generally a time intensive activity and can take anywhere between 3-6 working days. Cost for a detailed search generally ranges between ₹ 15,000 to ₹ 30,000.

Patent drafting / patent writing

Drafting a patent application is an important stage in the patent process.

A well drafted patent application could be the difference between getting a patent granted or not; and how effectively you will be able to enforce your patent rights against competitors, if the patent application is granted eventually.

If you are getting a patent agent or a patent law firm to help you draft the patent application, then this stage will be one of the most expensive stage in the patent process.

The patent drafting cost varies depending on the following factors:

• Complexity of the invention – Patent drafting prices can vary depending on the domain of the technology and complexity associated with the technology. Complex inventions from biosciences, pharmaceutical and software domains are generally charged more as opposed to simple devices due to the higher complexity involved and additional time required to draft such inventions.

• Experience of the patent expert – The experience of a patent expert has a strong correlation with the costs. Typically, patent law firms fees go higher with each jump in designation or experience of the patent agent or expert. Therefore, the order of increase in fee will follow this order: Associates (0-3 years) < Senior Associate (3-6 years) < Principal associate (6-9 years)< Partner (9+ years).

The cost for patent drafting of a patent application in India also varies based on the type of patent application you are looking to file, i.e. Provisional patent application or Complete patent application.

Provisional patent application

A provisional patent application generally requires less effort than a complete patent application, hence the patent fees for drafting are also less. Typically, patent experts charge anywhere between ₹ 5,000 to ₹ 75,000 for drafting a provisional patent application in India.

However, there are a few patent agents and patent law firms, with online focused presence, that are charging anywhere between ₹ 5,000 to ₹ 15,000 for drafting a provisional patent application. This discounted model for provisional patent application drafted is sustained either by reducing the time spent on drafting the provisional patent application or off-setting the initial effort as a client acquisition cost.

Once a provisional patent application is filed, a complete patent application has to be submitted within 12 months.

Complete patent application

One of the primary components of a complete patent application draft is the addition of patent claims. Patent claims are a very important part of a patent application and determines the scope of your patent application. This stage of complete patent application drafting also involves a substantial amount of fees and typically charged anywhere between ₹ 10,000 to ₹ 1,00,000.

Filing a Patent application in India

Once the patent draft is ready, it has to be filed with the Indian patent office to record the patent application in the name of the applicant and to generate the Indian patent application number.

Filing a patent application in India is the first step where government fees is applicable. The government fees has the following components:

1. Fixed fee (varies based on type of applicant) – For regular applicants, the government fees is ₹ 8,000. If the patent applicant is an individual, startup, SME or an educational institute, the fixed government fees is ₹ 1,600 per patent filing. This fixed fee includes up to 30 pages of the patent draft and up to 10 claims.
2. Additional fee (varies based on type of applicant) – If the patent draft exceeds 30 pages or 10 claims, additional government fees is applicable.
   1. Pages over 30 – For regular applicants the additional government fees for pages beyond 30 is ₹ 800 for regular applicants, and ₹ 160 for an individual, startup, SME or an educational institute.
   2. Claims over 10 – For regular applicants the additional government fees for claims beyond 10 is ₹ 1,600 for regular applicants, and ₹ 320 for an individual, startup, SME or an educational institute.

Note: If you are looking to understand the cost to file a patent, then it would generally include the steps of drafting of the patent application and filing of the patent application with the patent office. Typically, the cost of filing a patent (considering a complete patent application drafting), will generally range from ₹ 10,000 to ₹ 1,00,000, depending on the patent expert / patent law firm chosen.

Request for Examination

To request examination of a patent application in India, the applicant has to file a Request for Examination (RFE). The government fees to request an examination is higher than the government fees for filing a patent application in India and also varies depending on the type of applicant.

Furthermore, if you wish to expedite your patent examination, you may optionally file for expedited examination. The government fee for expedited examination is significantly higher than the regular examination fees.

The government fees for making a request for examination for regular applicants is ₹ 20,000. If the patent applicant is an individual, startup, SME or an educational institute, the fixed government fees is ₹ 4,000 per patent filing.

The government fees for making a request for expedited examination for regular applicants is ₹ 60,000. If the patent applicant is an individual, startup, SME or an educational institute, the fixed government fees is ₹ 8,000 per patent filing.

Responding to objections raised during patent examination

Once examination is requested, the examiner would examine the patent application in detail and issue any objections by way of an examination report. The applicant would need to respond to and address all the points in the objection to achieve a patent grant.

The cost to respond to examination report can vary significantly depending on the complexity of the invention and the effort required to address the objections in the examination report.

Typically, the cost to respond to the objection may be ₹ 6,000 to ₹ 12,000 for a simpler examination report, ₹ 12,000 to ₹ 20,000 for a detailed examined examination report and ₹ 20,000 – ₹ 30,000 for a complex examination report. Normally, only professional fee is involved during this stage.

In some cases, multiple examination reports might be issued and the cost to respond to examination report will also increase.

Attending patent hearing

More often than not, a patent hearing will also be scheduled in the matter. This step involves attending the patent hearing and a post hearing submission with the arguments.

Typically, this step also involves mainly involves professional fees. The professional fees for a hearing generally varies from ₹ 6,000 to ₹ 12,000 for simpler inventions, ₹ 12,000 to ₹ 20,000 for medium level inventions and ₹ 20,000 to ₹ 30,000 for complex inventions.

Grant of patent

Once all the objections are overcome, the patent office will grant the patent. There is no additional government fee when the patent is granted. However, some patent experts may charge some fee for this step as well.

Renewal of Patent fees

Once the patent is granted, it has to be renewed every year. The patent can be renewed for a maximum duration of 20 years from the date of priority or filing, whichever is earlier.

There is government fee which is charged for renewing the patent every year. The patent renewal fee charged by the government increases over the years and also varies dependent on the type of applicant.

The government fees for filing a renewal for regular applicants starts at ₹ 4,000 (3rd year) to ₹ 40,000 (20th year). If the patent applicant is an individual, startup, SME or an educational institute, the government fees starts at ₹ 800 (3rd year) to ₹ 8,000 (20th year).

The professional fee charged for renewal is also quite variable and varies from 3,000 to 10,000 typically.

Total patent costs in India from filing till renewal