12. Cost of filing patent in India by normal route - Patent Attorney (2024)

The official patent cost for filing a patent application is ₹1,600 for an individual or ₹4000 for a small or ₹8000 large entity. Attorney fees for drafting a patent application would be around ₹30,000.

Table of Contents

• Cost of filing patent in India by the normal route
  • What is the cost of patent registration in India?
  • The cost for Patent in table format :
  • Novelty search: this is an Optional step
  • Patent Drafting (Writing)
  • Filing patent application
  • Early Publication request (optional step )
  • Request for examination (RFE)
  • Respond to objections (if objections are received)

What is the cost of patent registration in India?

Assumptions:This is assuming the applicant is a Natural person(s) or Startup(s) or Small entit(y)/(ies) or educational institution(s) and we choose to take an expedited route for a faster grant of patent hence filing early publication and expedited examination requests.

There are two elements for the cost of getting patent/filing patent in India:

• The Government fees for Forms and requests.
• Professional Charges for a patent professional that is patent agent/attorney

The cost for Patent in table format :

Note:steps highlighted inOrange colorare either optionalstep or depends on case to case and are not mandatory to happen

Note:Government fees mentioned are for Natural persons or Startups or Small entities or educational institutions

link to cost sheet on the government website for patent: link here

The First Schedule Fees: Fees

Novelty search: this is an Optional step

The novelty search or patentability search is an Optional step, You may or may not do it, refer to our section Patentability search or Novelty Search for more details.

In this phase, the patent professional performs an extensive search for prior art in all possible databases for patent, articles, theses, etc. And builds a patentability search report based on the closest prior art found for your invention.

As this search is performed before filing patent application at Patent office, the attorney charges for Novelty search are ₹15000. or (USD 180)

Patent Drafting (Writing)

Patent drafting or patent writing is most important and critical stage in getting patent for your invention.

to know why and how of this process please check our sections on :

• Writing a patent application is a specialized skill
• Advantages of hiring with patent agent or attorney

Drafting a patent application is a specialized job and requires both technical (field of the invention) and legal (Indian patent act) understanding. patent is a techno-legal document. Many inventors trying to write patent application on their own writes it from a completely technical perspective. Writing patent application as a technical document without considering the legal aspect may be a mistake that can make your application not worth a lot. And all the efforts you took for research and development can go to waste.

Hence, the right patent professional (patent agent) with appropriate experience would be the most important investment you can make to protect your invention with the broadest possible scope.

it takes about 1 to 2 weeks time for a patent agent/attorney to work on your invention (writing a patent application) and send it to you for approval before filing in to the government patent office.

The attorney fee for patent drafting is ₹ 30,000. or (USD 360)

Filing patent application

Patent filing involves patent office fees as explained in table below. When you done with the review of patent drafted and are satisfied with the scope and technical details in the patent application, you can file the patent application is the prescribed manner. That is with appropriate forms with appropriate fees.

Government fees is Rs. 1600 or 8000 (based on type of applicant) while submitting the patent application in patent office.

If you do not file request for early publication (fees mentioned in table below) the patent application will be published on expiry of 18 months. The patent application is Filed in patent office. The patent application is filed in form 1, which is always accompanied by either provisional or complete specification in form 2.

Costs: there is no professional fees for patent filing patent application (provided fees is paid for patentability search and patent drafting )

Government forms and fees: Relevant form for patent application is Form 1 and Provisional/Complete Specification in Form 2

There are many things needed to consider before giving an exact fees amount, as it depends on number of sheets in patent specification, number of claims etc. but below are approximate costing for this stage.

Time : the time required is less than 1 day (if filed online)

The outcome of this filing patent application is :

• You receive a receipt for filing patent application in the government patent office with invention title, your name along with time and date of filing.
• Now, your invention is safe and you have secured a priority date for your invention, which makes you less worried about confidentiality and safety of your invention.
• The patent application will be taken to subsequent steps as performs, requests and fees submitted as per standards.

check form 1 and form 2 for details on the government patent website http://www.ipindia.nic.in/form-and-fees.htm

Application for Grant of Patent Form 01

Provisional/Complete Specification Form 02

Early Publication request (optional step )

Generally the application is automatically published after 18 months from the filing date. No fees or action is required by inventor. If you don’t want to wait till the expiry of 18 months, An early publication request can be made along with prescribed fees.

Rule 24. The period for which an application for patent shall not ordinarily be open to public under sub-section (1) of section 11A shall be eighteen months from the date of filing of application or the date of priority of the application, whichever is earlier. Provided that the period within which the Controller shall publish the application in the journal shall ordinarily be one month from the date of expiry of said period, or one month from the date of request for publication under rule 24A.

Rule 24A. Request for publication.—A request for publication under sub-section
(2) of section 11A shall be made in Form 9.

The early publication request can be made (optional step) with form 9 and by paying prescribed fess as per table below; in general the patent application is published within a month form request for early publication.

Government forms and fees:

Form 9. Remember, these is no fees for publication of application automatically after 18 months of filing date. The fees mentioned below is for optional step if you want to go for early publication request.

Refer forms and fees on government website for patent http://www.ipindia.nic.in/form-and-fees.htm

Request for Publication Form 09

Request for examination (RFE)

The patent application is examined only after receiving request for examination that is RFE. The inventor / applicant need to file a request for examination (RFE) within 48 months of filing date or priority date. This RFE is made with form 18 and the government fees for the same is mentioned in table below.

Up on receiving this request the controller gives your patent application to a patent examiner who performs searches for checking patentability of the invention (as per patentability criteria’s). and then the examiner creates a first examination report FER of the patent application.

The first examination report submitted to controller by examiner generally contains prior arts (existing documents before the date of filing) which are similar to the claimed invention, and any objections raised regarding patentability requirements for the invention. Same examination report (with objections) is communicated to you (inventor) / patent applicant.

Government forms and fees:

Form 18. The fees for request for examination RFE is as below.

form 18

check details on forms and fees on government website for patent : http://www.ipindia.nic.in/form-and-fees.htm

Respond to objections (if objections are received)

Majority of patent applicants (inventors) will receive some type of objections based on examination report. The best thing to do it analyze the examination report with patent agent / attorney and creating a response to the objections raised in the examination report. This is a chance for an inventor to communicate his novelty and non-obviousness of the invention based on the kind of objections received.

You (as inventor) / applicant supposed to answer the objection raised within 12 months from the date on which the First examination report is forwarded to you.

The inventor and patent agent create and send a response to the objections that tries to prove to controller that his invention is indeed patentable and satisfies all patentability criteria’s.

Or optionally accepts the objections and amends the patent application as pointed out in First examination report.

If the controller is satisfied with the response to the objections or the amended patent application. Up on finding the patent application in order of grant, The patent is granted to you (inventor) / applicant as early as possible !!! with a seal of patent office and the date of grant is registered in register of patents.

Professional Fees:

The patent agent /attorney professional fees to respond to objections is Rs. 15,000 or (USD 180)