India doubles patent fees for businesses
Businesses in India will have to pay 8,000 rupees ($130) instead of 4,000 rupees to file a patent online, under a number of changes to patent fees.
Inventors’ filing fees have increased by 60 percent, from 1,000 rupees to 1,600 rupees, while a new category of “small entities” has been added. Small entities must pay 4,000 rupees to file an application.
The Patents Rules 2014, released on February 28, are effective immediately. The changes were published by the Office of The Controller General Patents, Designs & Trade Marks.
India’s government has been discussing amending the Patents Rules 2003 since last year, and invited public comments on its proposals in June.
Fees for filing hard-copy applications have risen by 10 percent: inventors will pay 1,760 rupees, small entities 4,400 rupees and businesses 8,800 rupees.
Opposition fees have risen too. Inventors will be charged 2,400 rupees instead of 1,500, and businesses 12,000 rupees rather than 6,000 rupees. Small entities will pay 6,000 rupees.
“All stakeholders should get acquainted with the amended rules and changes,” said Chaitanya Prasad, controller general of patents, trademarks and designs.
When applications are filed jointly between inventors and businesses, said Prasad, the highest applicable fee will apply.
“It is further clarified that it shall be the sole responsibility of the applicant(s) to select the correct category of applicant and file all supporting documents in respect thereof while filing an application or other documents,” Prasad said.
The basic cost of filing a utility patent at the US Patent and Trademark Office is $280, more than double the fee for businesses in India.
The Indian fee rises will constitute only a small chunk of big businesses’ spending on patent applications, so they are unlikely to deter innovation, said Ashwani Balayan, partner at ALG India Law Offices in New Delhi.
But he added: “The increase in the annual patent renewal cost may force companies to abandon patents that are not used in India and have been maintained for strategic reasons. Maintaining more and more of these patents may not be financially viable for these companies.”
Increases in fees have been expected for some time, Balayan said.
“The justification usually offered by the government to support a rise is the provision of an improved and more efficient patent system in the country. Such reasoning is acceptable ... the deterrent for someone to file a patent is usually not the fee, but the time taken by the Indian Patent Office to grant a patent, which is currently more than five years. In fact, applicants quite often ask for processes to expedite examination even with an additional fee. The additional cost will be worth it if the office can have this backlog reduced by any extent.”
The new rules are available here.
