Cost of Getting a Patent in India & US

After conceiving your idea, you need to protect it by securing a patent as soon as possible. But before going for the patent, you need to estimate how much it would cost to get a patent and maintain it by paying periodic maintenance fee. Now there are two types of costs involved in getting a patent, namely professional fee and other is official fee. Professional fee is the fee charged by a patent consulting firm/agent/attorney to prepare, file and prosecute the patent application with the patent office. The professional fee may vary from one firm to other. More experienced and expert firms charge extra because they protect your idea in a broadest possible manner and pursue the application professionally. The official fee is the fee charged by the patent office to pursue your patent application. Here we are presenting only the official fee for obtaining a patent.

Indian and US patent official fee is determined by who the applicant is.

Indian patent office identifies the applicant either as a natural person or as a legal entity like companies. The official fee for legal entity is four times the fee for the natural person. In the following table, we have presented official fee of patent filling for an individual inventor in India:

S.No.	Fee Description	Indian patent office Fee (in INR)
1	Basic patent application filling	1000
2	Extra Page in addition of 30 page	100/page
3	Extra Claim in addition of 10 claim	200/claim
4	Early Publication Fee	2500
5	Request for Examination	2500

Table 1: Indian Patent Office Fee

The US patent office categorizes the applicant in two categories of small entity and big entity. The small entity can be an individual inventor, a company with employees less than 500 or a nonprofit organization. The official fee for big entity is twice the corresponding official fee of the small entity.

In the following table, we have presented official fee of patent filling for small entity in US:

S.No.	Fee Description	US patent office Fee (in USD)
1	Basic patent application filling	165
2	Each additional 50 page after first 100 page	135
3	Independent Claim in excess of 3	110/claim
4	Claim in excess of 20	26/claim
5	Patent Search Fee	270
6	Patent Examination Fee	110
7	Patent Issue Fee	755

Table 2: US Patent Office Fee

Apart from depositing the official fee for getting the patent, one has to deposit patent maintenance fee from time to time to keep patent active during its term.

Rights Reality would be pleased to assist you in filing or managing your Patent application. For any further queries, please feel free to write to us at queries@rightsreality.com.

Ten Step Guide to Get Patent

You are an inventor and consider your invention as path breaking approach to solve an existing problem. Now you have many questions, 

Is my invention patentable?

Is really my idea novel?

Can I get a patent for it?

If I market it, how could I stop others from copying it?

What is the procedure to obtain a patent?

Like these, you may have many other questions in your mind. Rights Reality is an Intellectual Property consulting firm that helps the companies, inventors and start-ups to protect, monetize and assert their inventions. Here we are presenting a ten step guide to get a patent for your invention.

Step 1: Conceptualization and Documentation of the Invention: Once you have conceptualized your invention, put it into papers. You should mention all the information relating to your invention like what problem it has solved, how it works, what are the different components of your invention, drawing of the invention etc. Additionally, put dates on all the documents, it will help in identifying the conceptualization dates of the invention. Further, the documentation will help the IP consultants in better understanding of your invention.

Step 2: Engaging IP Consultant: Patent drafting is an art and you need help of IP consultants to prosecute your patent application with the patent office. Therefore, you have to engage a professional IP consulting firm to draft, file and prosecute your patent application. Before, disclosing your invention to the IP consulting firm, you should sign a non-disclosure agreement with them.

Step 3: Invention Disclosure Meeting: After executing NDA, you can have invention disclosure meeting with the IP consulting firm and explain them the working of your invention, different components of the invention and unique applications of the inventions. Additionally, you can also share the documentation of the invention with the IP consulting firm.

Step 4: Patentability Assessment: It is the test of the patentability of the invention. First, it will be checked whether the invention lies under the government approved list of patentable subject matter. If yes, then a comprehensive prior art search will be conducted to determine the novelty and non-obviousness of the invention with respect to the existing systems and applications. Based on the prior art search results, the novelty of the invention will be established.

Step 5: Drafting patent application: after establishing the novelty of the invention, next step is to draft the complete patent application. Patent application is the legal document where you disclose the invention in detail with the drawing and define the protected boundary of the invention with claims. An experienced IP consultant will draft the application with broadest possible claims of the invention. He will draft the claims in such a way so that it would be easier to detect the infringement and deter others to pursue the invention.

Step 6: Filling Patent Application: Once you are ready with the complete patent application, the patent attorney/patent agent can file it in the patent office along with required patent filling fees. You get the priority date of the invention from the filling date of the patent application. The priority date is the date from which you can assert your right to patent.

Step 7: Publication of the patent application: After filing your patent application, the patent application is published after eighteen months from the date of filing.  If you would like to expedite your patent protection, you can place a request for early publication with required fees and the application will be published within a month from the date of request.

Step 8: Patent Application Examination: After publication, next step is to examine the patentability of the invention by the patent office. You can also expedite the process of examination by requesting to patent office and submitting the required fees. The patent office will assign the patent application to a patent examiner to scrutinize your invention and to verify whether the invention is patentable or not. The patent examiner will conduct a prior art search and determine the novelty and non-obviousness of the invention.

Step 9: Response to Office Action: The patent examiner submits the examination report, where he may provide references of the relevant prior art which might negate the novelty of the claimed invention.  The inventor has to study the report along with the IP consultant and respond to the examination report along with proper reasoning about the patentability of the invention. This step is called office action. Sometime there could be multiple office actions to establish the novelty of the invention.

Step 10: Grant of Patent: After clarifying all the objections raised by patent office, the patent will be granted with the incorporated modification during office actions. Now, you will get a patent number for the invention. Once the patent is granted, you have to pay issue fees and the periodic maintenance charges to the patent office.