15. Cost benefits for Students and academics

Discounted Patent fees for Students and academics

“The cost of a patent for students and educational institutes is having discounted attorney fees, up to 30% off, The official patent cost for filing a patent application is ₹1,600, and Attorney fees for drafting a patent application would be around ₹20,000.”

Cost benefits for Students and academics

Cost benefits for Students and academics :

We all know the importance of Patent in the educational environment

  • The Lecturers, professors (teaching staff) are appreciated and even Promoted for getting patent for research project
  • The news and media channel attention to students and institute who receives Patent for the invention
  • The companies preferring students who have done research work and have patent filed or granted for the invention

we need to refer to our section on  patent costs by normal route in this discussion  Cost of filing patent in India by normal route

discounted attorney fees for students and educational institutes

In general patent agents/attorneys offer discounted attorney fees for students and educational institutes. So, when we compare patent filing costs with general clients, the students or educational institutes can enjoy up to 30% discounts on attorney fees. However, the government or official fees for all the steps remain the same.

Note: considering you are a natural person(s) applicant and you filed a patent application for your innovative idea or project in India, the total attorney charges for patent drafting (writing) + patent filing + request for early publication + request for examination can be as low as ₹ 20,000 in certain cases. this is without considering the official fees for relevant stages.

Discounted Patent Fees for colleges and Educational institutes

Below are discounted patent attorney fees of getting a Patent in India

  • Patent attorney fees for Patent drafting is ₹ 20,000   ₹ 30,000
  • total official fees for patents by expedited (fast route) ₹ 12,100 ( this includes Filing fees ₹1600 + Early publication ₹2500 + Expedited (fast) examination ₹8000)

After 6 to 8 months 

  • If First Examination is Received – Patent attorney fees for responding to FER is ₹ 12,000 ₹ 15000
  • If Hearing is required with the patent office – Patent attorney charges would be ₹ 12,000 ₹ 15000

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 a patent/filing patent in India: 

  1. The Government fees for Forms, requests, and renewals.
  2. Professional Charges for patent professional, patent agent/attorney

The cost for Patent in table format : 

Note: steps highlighted in Orange color are either optional step or depends on case to case and are not mandatory to happen

Sr.Stages for Patent  (click links below for more details in videos or articles )Professional fees Government Fees for (Natural person or Startup or Small entity or educationalinstitution)Time required 
1How to go from Idea toInvention disclosure ? 
Do I need patent agent of attorney
Is my invention patentable ?		–––
2Signing Non-Disclosure Agreement  (NDA)––10 minutes to sign
3Patentability / Novelty Search  (Optional step)₹ 12,000–3 – 5 days
4Drafting Complete Patent Application ₹  20,000–10 – 12 days
5Filing patent application –₹ 1,600 1 – 2 days
6Publication of patent application ––After 18 months
7Early publication (Optional step)₹ 25001 – 2 months
8Request For examination (Normal Route)₹ 40002-3 Years
9Request For examination(Expedited, with a female as applicant or  co-applicant,) (Optional step)₹ 80008 to 9 months
10Drafting and Filing a response to the First Examination Report (FER), In Case you receive any objection from the patent office (government)₹ 12,000–Drafting response 7-10 days
11Hearing (Per Hearing) In Case you receive any hearing from patent office (government)₹ 12,000–depends on the government
12Grant of patent or refusal ––Depends on the pendency at government

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

Video about the process we follow for moving from invention to grant of patent

Do I really need a Patent Agent or a Patent Attorney for Getting a patent for my invention? this question is answered in Video 3:

Drafting/writing a patent application is a specialized job and requires both technical (field of the invention) and legal (Indian patent act) understanding.

Can I draft a patent application on my own? 

A patent is a techno-legal document. Many inventors trying to write a patent application on their own draft it purely from a technical perspective like a thesis, would not be covering the scope of the invention properly and would be missing the entire purpose of getting a Patent.

Writing a patent application as a technical document i.e. without considering the legal aspect/provisions may be a mistake that can make your application difficult to go through the examination phase and the Patent commercialization Phase as well. And, all the efforts you took for your Research and Development (R&D) can go to waste. Hence, working with the right patent attorney (patent agent) with appropriate experience improves the chances of getting patent granted. video 4: 

The process for filing a patent application:

Step 1: Signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)

This agreement is done for your safety. It does not cost you anything. A non-disclosure agreement is an agreement that a patent agent/attorney or Intellectual Property firm is doing with you, to protect the confidentiality of your invention. In other words, the patent attorney is doing this non-disclosure agreement with you (inventor) and agreeing on keeping your invention confidential/secret and do not misuse it.

We have attached an NDA agreement copy in the link below. Please fill in Inventor/s complete name and communication address. Please send a signed copy of the NDA via email to proceed with your patent filing requirement.

Step 2: Filling Invention Disclosure form

This is a form with 12-15 questions you need to answer or write so that we can understand your invention accurately. You can write what problem our invention is solving, how it is better than competitors, how we are solving the problem etc. information along with a diagram, flow chart, or hand-drawn sketches of the invention. 

The video below would help you with understanding ” the exact information needed to file a patent application that is creating invention disclosure for your invention.” video link:

Step 3: Patentability search ( This is an optional step)

When we receive the invention disclosure from your end, we would be conducting a patentability search (also called Novelty search). This step is the find out whether your invention is novel or not. Which is one of the patentability criteria. The patentability search report helps us in deciding whether to go ahead with patent filing. It takes about 7 days to complete the patentability search and the Patent attorneys fees for this step is ₹ 12,000/-

see the video above to know why patentability search is important (although an optional step) and can save you from wasting money on a patent that would not be worth filing. 

Stage 4: Decide to file patent application

On reviewing the patentability search report and discovering the closest prior arts for your invention you can take a decision on whether to go ahead with patent application filing.

Your invention needs to have an “inventive step” as compared with existing prior art to be able to qualify for a patent. The inventive step is achieved when your invention has either ‘technical advance’ or ‘economic significance’ or both over existing prior arts and the invention is not obvious to a person skilled in the art. When you decide to go ahead with patent filing next step is writing a patent application also called ‘patent drafting’.

Step 5: Drafting and filing a complete patent application:

If the invention is found to be novel in the patentability search, the next step is to write (Draft) a patent application around the inventive step (Novel feature) of your invention.  

It takes about 10-12 working days to complete a patent application that would be reviewed with you once before filing it to the Indian Patent Office. The Attorney Fee for preparing and filing a complete application is around ₹ 20,000/-

(If you are not ready with the invention yet, filing a Provisional Patent Application is a way to secure a filing date and get patent-pending status. The attorney fee for filing a Provisional Patent application is ₹ 15,000/- .)

Step 6:  Filing Patent application  

The patent application is filed in the Government Patent office along with official fees for patent filing. for the individual applicant, the official filing fee is ₹ 1600/-. If you do not file a request for early publication (fees mentioned in the table below) the patent application will be published on expiry of 18 months.

Request for early publication

In case, we file a request for early publication, the patent application gets published within one month of such request.  The official fee for filing a request for early publication is ₹ 2500.

Step 7: Request for Examination  

The official fee for filing a Request for examination is ₹ 4000. This is the request made to the Indian patent office to examine your patent application. Note: if we are going for expedited (faster examination) the government fees would be ₹ 8000.

Step 8: Responding to objections in the examination report

The first examination report (FER) submitted to the controller by the examiner generally contains objections which is also communicated to you and then need to be replied to with a response to objections.

Step 9: Respond to objections and Hearing ( In Case it is required )

The majority of patent applicants will receive some objections based on the examination report. The best thing to do is to analyze the examination report along with a patent professional (patent agent) and create a response to the objections. Once the controller is convinced about our response, he issues/grants the patent.  The professional fees for Response to objections would be Rs. 12,000/- based on the number of objections raised and the complexity of the subject matter. 

If the controller is not convinced, a hearing would be scheduled. A hearing can happen via a video conference (online) or in-person meeting where the Patent agent/attorney tried to convince the controller about the eligibility of our patent application and in case needed amends/edits the patent application as suggested by the controller so that it could be granted.  The professional fees for attending a Hearing would be Rs. 12,000/-.

Step 10: Grant of patent

Once all objections raised in the examination report are cleared, the patent is granted to the applicant.

I have an Idea or Invention, I want to know if it can be patented. What to do next?

Step 1: Importance of Signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA):Before we proceed with any further discussions or exchange of information, it is crucial to establish a Non-Disclosure Agreement. This agreement is done for your safety. It does not cost you anything. The purpose of an NDA is to maintain strict confidentiality regarding your invention. We have shared the NDA agreement copy in the link below. Please fill in Inventor/s complete name and communication address. Please send a signed copy of the NDA via email to proceed with your patent filing requirement.(Please note that the provided soft copy of the NDA attached herein is duly signed from our end and shall have the same effect/ legal standing as that of hard copies, in view of Section 4 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, of India, according to which soft/electronic copies of documents sent over email have the same effect/ legal standing as that of hard copies.)The link below is for attachments about Non-Disclosure agreements (NDA), and Invention Disclosure Form.

Documents folder link:  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vtzY7YsfgOaN5Gegnp5TKGcLWlEMU4Kh?usp=sharing

Invention Disclosure for Filing Patent:

To initiate the patent filing process, we require detailed information about your invention. As explained in step 2 above, You can write what problem our invention is solving, how it is better than competitors, how we are solving the problem etc. information along with a diagram, flow chart, or hand-drawn sketches of the invention. The video below would help you with understanding ” the exact information needed to file a patent application that is creating invention disclosure for your invention.” 

Evaluating Patentable Subject Matter:

Once we receive your completed Invention Disclosure Form, our team of experts will thoroughly review the provided information. We will carefully assess whether your invention falls under patentable subject matter based on the applicable patent laws and regulations.If we determine that your invention may not be eligible for a patent, we will inform you honestly and provide our reason or relevant patent law sections behind this decision. It is essential to be transparent at this stage to save time, effort, and cost in filing patent applications for inventions that could not be patented.Scheduling a Discussion about the understanding of invention:

If our evaluation confirms that your invention is eligible for a patent, we will be delighted to proceed with the project. At this point, we will schedule a call or video conference via Google Meet or Zoom to further discuss our understanding of your invention. I would like to emphasize that all the steps mentioned above, including the NDA, Invention Disclosure evaluation, and the initial discussion, are free of cost. You will only be billed when we start the actual work on your project, such as drafting the patent application and providing the required legal support.

I look forward to speaking to you regarding your patent-related requirement and I would be happy to answer your questions and doubts.

Prasad Karhad
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