Saturday, 5 November 2011

How Much Does It Cost to Get a Patent in India?



Understanding the expense structure while applying for a patent can aid in creating some imperative choices. Hence, rather of getting a generic idea about the overall cost, it helps if you are conscious of the breakdown of the expense structure and the time of incurring such expenses.

The substantial fees involved in processing a patent application consists of, the fee that has to be paid to the patent office (statutory fee) and the fee paid to the patent service provider (professional fee). The expert fee varies based on the service provider you might choose. Hence, in this article I will deal only with the statutory fee.

The statutory fee depends on who the applicant of the patent is. The Indian Patent Office (IPO) has categorized the applicants into two categories:

1. Natural person

2. Other than natural individual

Any individual applying for a patent is considered as a natural person. On the other hand, all other entities that do not fall below the very first category naturally fall below the second category. For example, legal entities, such as, suppliers would fall below the second category. It shall be noted that, a patent application can have far more than 1 applicant, and even if one of the applicants do not fall under the very first category, then the patent application is considered to be filed by the second category applicants.

The patent workplace collects four occasions the fee from the second category applicants as compared to very first category applicants.

In this post, I will list down the fee applicable to the initially category applicants. You may possibly multiply this fee with 4 to figure out the fee applicable to the second category applicants.

Serial quantity 1

An application for grant of patent has to be submitted. A fee of Indian rupee (INR) 1000 has to be paid when submitting the patent application in the Indian Patent Office (IPO). This is a mandatory fee. The exchange rate for 1 US dollars was Indian rupee 45 at the time of writing this write-up.

Serial number 2

An early publication request has to be submitted if 1 wishes to have their patent application published earlier than the patent workplace norm of publishing patent applications 18 months from the priority date (date on which you initially file a patent application for your invention). This request carries a fee of Indian rupee 2500. The advantages of early publication contain expedition of the patent application examination process.

This is an optional step.

Serial quantity 3

A request for examination of patent application has to be submitted. A fee of INR 2500 has to be paid, requesting the IPO to examine your patent application. This fee can be paid within 48 months from the priority date. Then again, note that the patent workplace considers your application for examination only immediately after receiving this fee. Hence, if you want to expedite the patent approach, it is advisable to pay this fee at the earliest. This is a mandatory fee.

Serial quantity 4

The IPO accepts patent specifications, which has up to 30 sheets without charging any extra fee. Having said that, if the specification crosses 30 sheets, a fee of INR 100/sheet for each additional sheet has to be paid to the IPO. This is a mandatory fee.

Serial quantity five

Further, the IPO accepts patent specifications, which has up to ten claims (no limitation on independent claims) without charging any additional fee. Yet, if the specification has extra than ten claims, then a fee of INR 200/Claim for every single extra claim has to be paid to the IPO. This is a mandatory fee.

I hope you find this write-up helpful in filing patent applications in the Indian Patent Workplace.

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