The Total Cost of Obtaining a Patent: Start to Finish

The price of a patent application from start to finish ranges from a few hundred dollars to 100,000 dollars. It depends on various factors like the country where to file a patent, the type of patent- utility patent or design patent, the complexity of the patent, and whether the patent was filed by a self-inventor or with the assistance of a patent attorney. So, we can say that there is not one fixed cost for all patents. It depends on the types, degrees of difficulty, areas covered, amount of information, etc. The choice between a design patent and a utility patent is possibly the most crucial one in terms of cost. A utility patent will be much more expensive to obtain than a design patent. 

The patent search can be approached in a variety of ways. Either we undertake the patent search ourselves, or we engage a patent attorney to do it for us. Hiring a patent attorney to conduct the search will probably result in more thorough results. Let us take a patent filing case in the US. The table below gives a comparison of fees by USPTO and any average Patent Attorney Fees. It is clearly understood that the average fee taken by any patent attorney is much higher than the USPTO fee (fees given by an inventor or owner of the invention directly to the USPTO). But patent attorneys have more experience, knowledge, and expertise to determine the patentability of the invention. 

Other Patent Application Types and their Cost- Divisional Patent, Continuation Patent 

• Cost for Divisional Patents– As a response to a restriction requirement by a USPTO patent examiner, a divisional patent application is one that is separated from a parent application. Suppose any original patent application has 20 claims, the examiner may say that claims 1-11 are one invention, and claims 12-20 are a second invention. The inventor must therefore choose which claims to pursue under the parent/primary patent application. The inventor has the choice to file a divisional application on either the innovation described in claims 12 through 15 or claims 16 through 20 after deciding to move forward with claims 1 through 11. 
• Cost for Continuation Patents- Using the same specification and drawings that were previously submitted in the active parent application, a continuation patent application enables a patent applicant to pursue patent claims. The parent application’s written description and patent illustrations must be included in this new application, which has new claims and associated expenses.  

Patent Cost in India