Costs of Getting a Patent Application Examined

Published on 27 June 2016

Patent examination is an integral part of the patenting process. There are two types of patent examination systems across the world, namely automatic examination and deferred examination. In the former, as the name implies, a patent application is automatically taken up for examination based on the date of publication, which in turn depends on the date of filing or priority date. There may be an explicit fee that is to be paid at the time of filing, which may be included in the filing fee itself. In the latter, on the other hand, a patent application is taken up for examination only on the basis of the date on which an examination request and the associated official fee are paid.

The total costs (official and associate) incurred to file an examination request can be quite high. The associate costs may be waived if the examination request is submitted at the time of filing.

Let us consider a relatively simple case of a 30-page specification having 10 claims (of which two are independent claims) filed by a large entity, in the top twenty patent jurisdictions* in the world. For the purpose of this analysis, EPO member states have not been considered separately. An estimate of the total official and associate costs incurred in each country for electronic filing are depicted in Table 1. For most jurisdictions, the total costs are in the range of $500 to $1,000.

Based on our in-depth research of patent legislations, we have determined that the examination costs are dependent on the total number of claims in JP (official fee of $1,150 for the first claim and $37 for every additional claim) and KR (official fee of $125 for the first claim and $42 for every additional claim). Likewise, the number of independent claims has an impact on the total costs in Russia (official fee of $37 for the first independent claim and $29 for every additional independent claim). This research is reflected in our software in the form of questions that need to be answered by a user, such as “Number of claims for Japan” and “Number of independent claims.”

Impressed with the depth of our research? Our flagship software Global IP Estimator can help in accurate estimation of these costs. Contact us for more details!

Exchange Rates Used:

1 US Dollar = 1.32 Australian Dollars, 3.53 Brazilian Real, 1.26 Canadian Dollars, 6.48 Chinese Yuan, 0.87 Euros, 3.76 Israeli New Shekels, 66.53 Indian Rupees, 106.12 Japanese Yen, 1,143.64 Korean Won, 330.13 Kazakhstan Tenge, 17.35 Mexican Pesos, 3.96 Malaysian Ringgits, 1.43 NZ Dollars, 66.34.1 Russian Rubles, 3.75 Riyals, 1.35 Singapore Dollars, 25.34 Ukraine Hryvnia, and 14.42 South African Rands.

*- Top twenty patent jurisdictions taken from WIPO’s World IP Indicators 2015