Faster grant of patent in India by Expedited examination
Faster grant of patent in India by Expedited examination: the patent would be granted within about 1 year of time and The official patent cost of filing a patent in India by expedited route is ( filing fees ₹ 1,600+ early publication ₹ 2,500 + expedited examination ₹ 8,000) = ₹ 12,100. or (USD 145) Attorney fees for drafting a patent application would be around ₹30,000. or (USD 360)
Table of Contents
- Faster grant of patent in India by Expedited examination
- What is the cost of patent registration in India?
- The cost for Patent in table format :
- Request for expedited examination
- Who can use such a request for expedited examination?
- What qualifies for a startup?
- What if you do not qualify for startup?
- Advantages of Expedited examination
- Response to objections
- Hearing with the patent office :
- Grant of patent
- I have an Idea or Invention, I want to know if it can be patented. What to do next?
Cost of filing patent in India by Expedited route :
We would compare the Expedited (Faster) Route with the Normal route here. Make sure you have already seen the section on Cost of filing patent in India by normal route to understand this comparison.
What is the cost of patent registration in India?
Here is the short answer for the cost of the patent in India :
- Patent attorney fees for Patent drafting is ₹ 30,000 or (USD 360)
- total official fees for patents by expedited (fast route) ₹ 12,100 or (USD 145) ( this includes Filing fees ₹1600, Early publication ₹2500, Expedited (fast) examination ₹8000)
- If First Examination is Received – Patent attorney fees for responding to FER is ₹ 15000 or (USD 180)
- If the Hearing is required with the patent office – Patent attorney charges would be ₹ 15000 or (USD 180)
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 (links for more details) | Professional fees | Government Fees | Time required |
| 1 | How to go from Idea to Invention disclosure? Do I need patent agent of attorney Is my invention patentable ? | – | – | – |
| 2 | Signing Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) | – | – | 10 minutes to sign |
| 3 | Patentability / Novelty Search (Optional step) | ₹ 15,000 or (USD 180) | – | 3 – 5 days |
| 4 | Drafting Complete Patent Application | ₹ 30,000 or (USD 360) | – | 10 – 12 days |
| 5 | Filing patent application | – | ₹ 1,600 or (USD 19) | 1 – 2 days |
| 6 | Publication of patent application | – | – | After 18 months |
| 7 | Early publication (Optional step) | ₹ 2500 or (USD 30) | 1 – 2 months | |
| 8 | Request For examination (Normal Route) | ₹ 4000 or (USD 48) | 2-3 Years | |
| 9 | Request For examination(Expedited, with a female as applicant or co-applicant,) (Optional step) | ₹ 8000 or (USD 96) | 8 to 9 months | |
| 10 | Drafting and Filing a response to the First Examination Report (FER), In Case you receive any objection from the patent office (government) | ₹ 15,000 or (USD 180) | – | Drafting response 7-10 days |
| 11 | Hearing In Case you receive any hearing from patent office (government) | ₹ 15,000 or (USD 180) | – | depends on the government |
| 12 | Grant 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
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.
The grant of patent by Normal route takes more than 2 or 3 Years. Although, after filing of patent application, that is receiving patent pending or patent applied status and patent application number; you can do most of the things like:
- disclosing patented invention without fear of loosing its confidentiality (since patent is already filed and we secured the priority date already)
- testing commercial worth of invention
- demonstrating invention to other businesses or parties
- selling invention in market
- presenting information in seminar or conferences
- talking to investors or bankers for funding etc…
However, you can not stop others until you have granted patent in India (or respective country of your interest)
Hence sometimes you may decide not to wait for 2-3 years or even more time for grant of patent by normal route and you may decide to go for expedited (faster) route explained in detailed below.
Request for expedited examination
This request for expedited examination is an application filed by patent applicant in Government patent office to Expedite the examination of the patent application. This request is made by using Form 18A
| Request For Expedited Examination Of Application For Patent | Form 18(A) (71 KB) |
Fees for expedited examination
| Individual inventors Natural person(s) or Startup(s) or Small entit(y)/(ies) or educational institution(s) | Others | |
| Request for expedited examination | 8,000 or (USD 96) | 60,000 or (USD 721) |
Who can use such a request for expedited examination?
- (a) that India has been indicated as the competent International Searching Authority or elected as an International Preliminary Examining Authority in the corresponding international application; or
- (b) that the applicant is a startup; or
- (c) that the applicant is a small entity; or
- (d) that if the applicant is a natural person or in the case of joint applicants, all the applicants are natural persons, then the applicant or at least one of the applicants is a female; or
- (e) that the applicant is a department of the Government; or
- (f) that the applicant is an institution established by a Central, Provincial or State Act, which is owned or controlled by the Government; or
- (g) that the applicant is a Government company as defined in clause (45) of section 2 of the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013); or
- (h) that the applicant is an institution wholly or substantially financed by the Government; or
- (i) that the application pertains to a sector which is notified by the Central Government on the basis of a request from the head of a department of the Central Government.
- (j) that the applicant is eligible under an arrangement for processing a patent application pursuant to an agreement between Indian Patent Office and a foreign Patent Office.
What qualifies for a startup?
“Startup” means (a) an entity in India recognized as a startup by the competent authority under Startup India initiative.
(b) In case of a foreign entity, an entity fulfilling the criteria for turnover and period of incorporation/registration as per Startup India Initiative and submitting declaration to that effect.
According to the Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2016 startups were defined as
- entities that are working towards innovation, development, deployment or commercialization of new products, processes or services driven by technology or intellectual property where more than five years have not been lapsed from the date of incorporation/registration with a maximum turnover of INR 25 crore per year.
- However, according to the Patent (Amendment) Rules, 2017, a startup can be any Indian entity recognized as a startup by the competent authority under the Startup India Initiative or a foreign entity that fulfills criteria for turnover and period of incorporation/registration as per Startup India Initiative.
Under Startup India Initiative a Startup fulfills the following criteria:
- incorporated as a private limited company or registered as a partnership firm or a limited liability partnership in India;
- incorporated or registered in India not prior to ten years;
- turnover for any of the financial years since incorporation/ registration has not exceeded INR 100 crores;
- has not been formed by splitting up or reconstruction of a business that was already in existence; and
- working towards innovation, development or improvement of products or processes or services, or if it is a scalable business model with a high potential of employment generation or wealth creation.
What if you do not qualify for startup?
If you are an individual or group of individual inventors or a legal entity other than startup, you can go for request for expedited examination if
” you filled a PCT Patent cooperation treaty (international application) and selected India as a designated country as either International Searching Authority (ISA) or as an International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA)” or
” you can add a female as applicant or co-applicant for your patent application “
Advantages of Expedited examination
The main advantage is very short time required till grant of patent when we compare it with the normal route. This benefit of requiring less time from filing to grant (in some cases less than 1 year) is because of the following things:
- The patent applications with request for expedited examination are taken on separate queue, hence would be examined much quicker than normal route
- Shorter timelines for each step along the way from filing request for expedited examination till grant of patent.
Note : in some cases the patent application is examined and First examination report can be expected within 6 months, and if you (applicant) is proactive in responding to objections and taking required steps in timely manner the patent can be granted within 1 to 1.5 year.
Response to objections
The majority of patent applicants (inventors) will receive some type of objection based on the examination report. The best thing to do it analyze the examination report with patent agent/attorney and create 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 is 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. detailed information at step 6 : Response to objections or First Examination Report
Professional Fees: The patent agent /attorney’s professional fee to respond to objections is Rs. 15,000 or (USD 180).
Hearing with the patent office :
A hearing at the Indian Patent Office is typically held to resolve issues related to the examination of a patent application. It may involve addressing objections or rejections raised by the patent examiner, presenting arguments in favor of the patent application, or discussing any other matters related to the patent application’s prosecution.
Attorney fees: The attorney fee for attending the Hearing with the patent office is ₹ 15,000 or (USD 180)
Grant of patent
The application would be placed in order for grant once it is found to be meeting all patentability requirements. The patent is granted to you (inventor) / applicant as soon as possible with the seal form patent office and The grant of patent is notified in the patent journal which is published time to time.
detailed information at Step 7 : Grant of patent
You may go through the details about Cost of filing patent in India by the normal route
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.” video link: https://youtu.be/2ft_oQ0uR8I
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.
To proceed from here you may contact us over the phone or schedule a free video meeting / free consultation. I look forward to speaking to you regarding your patent-related requirement and I would be happy to answer your questions and doubts.
- Indian Patent Office, Govt. of India
- Patent Facilitator for Start-ups, Startup India Govt. of India
- Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Telecommunication engineering.
- Author of multiple books on Patents and IPR including a best-selling book on “How to patent an idea in India” which has been selected as the “Memorable Business Book of 2018” by Amazon
- Books are included in the syllabus of Educational Institutions as textbook and reference book on subject of IPR and Patents
- For over 15 years, Prasad has helped protect the intellectual property rights (IPR) of more than 1800 clients, including individuals, entrepreneurs, and educational institutes. This includes patents, trademarks, designs, and copyrights.