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Official Fee for Patent Applications in India

The official fee for a patent application in India is calculated on the basis of the following factors:

  • the type of applicant,
  • number of priorities (additional fee for each priority above 1),
  • the total number of pages (additional fee for each page above 30) and
  • the number of claims in the application (additional fee for each claim above 10).

Fee reductions of 80% are available for special categories of applicants, including natural persons, start-ups, small entities, and recognized educational institutions.

The base fee and additional fees, as of November 2021 for filing Indian patent applications, are as follows:

Description Normal Applicant Special Applicant (Natural person / Start-up / Small entity / Educational Institution)
Application fee for up to one priority, up to 30 pages and 10 claims INR 8000 (approx. 110 USD) INR 1600 (approx. 20 USD)
For every page above 30 pages INR 800 (approx. 10 USD) INR 160 (approx. 2 USD)
For every claim above 10 claims INR 1600 (approx. 20 USD) INR 320 (approx. 4 USD)
For every extra priority INR 8000 (approx. 110 USD) INR 1600 (approx. 20 USD)

Obhan & Associates has developed a Patent Fee Calculator that can be used to calculate the cost of filing a patent application, based on various criteria such as Currency, Type of Entity, Number of Claims, Number of Pages, Number of Priority Dates, Number of Sheets of nucleotides or amino acid sequences (if any) and Request for Examination.

For example, if an application by a small entity has 70 pages including the specification, claims and drawings, and contains 20 claims, the amount payable would calculated as follows:

Filing fee = INR 1600 (For small entity)

Excess 40 sheets per sheet @ INR 160 = INR 160×40 = INR 6400/-

Excess 10 claims per claim @ INR 320 = INR 320 x 10= INR 3200/-

Total filing charges = INR 11200/-

If there is more than one priority in connection with an application, the fee will increase based on the excess priority. For every extra priority, the fees increase by an additional INR 8000 for a large entity and an additional INR 1600 for special category applicants.

To calculate the official fee for your application, please refer to the Patent Fee Calculator provided here: https://www.obhanandassociates.com/india-patent-fee-calculator/

All extra fees including fees for extra claims, pages or priorities must be paid at the time of filing of the patent application in India.

Request for Examination

In India, a Request for Examination must be filed for the patent application to be considered for examination. This Request for Examination is to be filed mandatorily as per Section 11B of the Indian Patents Act, 1970. The fee for Request for Examination can be paid at any time within 48 months from the earliest filing date (priority date). However, it is advisable to file the Request for Examination along with the application itself, for faster examination of the patent application.

An applicant also has the option of requesting for expedited examination, for an additional fee. This can be done to skip the regular queue of Requests for Examination. Additionally, a request for express examination can also be filed by requesting the IPO to examine the patent application before the expiry of 31 months.

Fee reductions 

  • natural person
  • start-up
  • small entity
  • recognized educational institution

If a patent application is filed jointly, and only one of the applicants falls in one of the categories eligible for the reduced fees, the patent fee charged shall be without a reduction in the official fee.

If an application is originally filed by a natural person, start-up, or a small entity, and is subsequently transferred to a large entity, the fee must be paid in accordance with the entity status of the new assignee. Additionally, the difference in official fee chargeable from the new assignee and that charged earlier, if any, must also be paid.

If a start-up or small entity, having filed an application for a patent, ceases to be a start-up or small entity due to the lapse of the period during which it is recognized to be so, or its turnover subsequently crosses the specified financial threshold for eligibility to be recognized thus, no such difference in the scale of fees shall be payable.

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