At a glance
| Law | Forms | Official fee to file | Term | Who files it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patents Act, 1970 and Patents Rules, 2003 | Form 1 with a provisional or complete specification, Form 2, Form 3, Form 5 | ₹1,600 or ₹8,000 per application, e-filing | 20 years from the date of filing | A registered patent agent, or the applicant in person |
Who does what on a patent, and what Regikart does not do
Start here, because it decides who you should be talking to.
Drafting a specification and prosecuting an application before the Patent Office is reserved work. Chapter XXI of the Patents Act, 1970 provides for a register of patent agents: section 126 sets the qualifications, which include a degree in science, engineering or technology and the qualifying examination, and section 127 entitles a registered patent agent to practise before the Controller and to prepare all documents and transact all business in proceedings before the Patent Office. Section 129 restricts a person who is not registered from practising or holding out as a patent agent. An applicant may act in their own matter, and an advocate may appear at a hearing under section 132, but neither of those is a route to having a specification drafted by someone who is not a patent agent.
Regikart is a CA and CS firm. We are not a registered patent agent, and we do not draft or prosecute patent specifications. The drafting and the filing on a Regikart engagement are done by a registered patent agent we work with.
What we do, and what it is worth paying for:
| Stage | Who does it |
|---|---|
| First conversation: is this an invention, is it excluded by section 3, has it already been published or sold | Regikart, free review |
| Entity status and the fee band: whether you qualify as a natural person, startup, small entity or educational institution, and what evidence the Patent Office will want | Regikart |
| Ownership: getting the invention assigned to the company from founders, employees and contractors before anything is filed | Regikart, with drafting |
| Prior-art searching, drafting the specification and the claims, filing, and everything before the Controller | The registered patent agent |
| The corporate side: DPIIT recognition, the IP schedule in a due diligence pack, capitalisation and valuation questions | Regikart |
If your invention is clearly patentable and you already have a patent agent, you do not need us in the middle. Say so and we will tell you which parts of the list above are still worth doing.
What can be patented
Three tests, and the invention has to clear all three.
- Novelty. The invention must be new. Anything published anywhere in the world before your filing date, including your own website, pitch deck, trade-fair demo or paper, can destroy novelty.
- Inventive step. It must not be obvious to a person skilled in the art. This is the test most applications actually fail.
- Industrial application. It must be capable of being made or used in an industry.
Beyond the three tests there are subject-matter bars, and they are where most Indian applications are refused.
What cannot be patented: section 3
Section 3 of the Patents Act, 1970 lists what are not inventions within the meaning of the Act. In plain words:
| Clause | What it excludes |
|---|---|
| 3(a) | Frivolous inventions, and anything obviously contrary to well established natural laws |
| 3(b) | Inventions whose primary or intended use or commercial exploitation would be contrary to public order or morality |
| 3(c) | The mere discovery of a scientific principle, or the formulation of an abstract theory |
| 3(d) | The mere discovery of a new form or new property of a known substance, where it does not result in enhanced efficacy |
| 3(e) | A substance obtained by a mere admixture resulting only in the aggregation of the properties of its components |
| 3(f) | The mere arrangement, re-arrangement or duplication of known devices, each functioning independently |
| 3(h) | A method of agriculture or horticulture |
| 3(i) | A process for the medicinal or surgical treatment of humans or animals |
| 3(j) | Plants and animals in whole or any part thereof, other than micro-organisms |
| 3(k) | A mathematical or business method, or a computer programme per se, or algorithms |
| 3(l) | Literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works and other aesthetic creations, including cinematographic works |
| 3(m) | A mere scheme, rule or method of performing a mental act, or a method of playing a game |
| 3(n) | A presentation of information |
| 3(o) | The topography of integrated circuits |
| 3(p) | An invention which in effect is traditional knowledge, or an aggregation of known properties of a traditionally known component |
Section 4 adds a separate bar: no patent is granted for an invention relating to atomic energy falling within section 20(1) of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962.
Software, apps and business models
This is the single most common disappointment on this page, so it is worth being direct.
Section 3(k) excludes a mathematical or business method, a computer programme per se, and algorithms. A marketplace, a workflow, a pricing model, a recommendation feature described as a set of steps, or an app whose novelty is in what it does for the user rather than in how a machine is made to work, runs straight into 3(k).
What that leaves you:
- Copyright protects the code as a literary work, from the moment it is written, at ₹500 per work to register. See copyright registration.
- A trademark protects the brand you sell it under, which is what customers actually recognise. See trademark registration.
- Contracts protect the parts nobody can see: a confidentiality regime, employee and contractor IP assignment and a signed non-disclosure agreement.
- A patent application may still be worth assessing where the invention lies in hardware, in a technical effect on the working of a device or a system, or in a process outside 3(k). That is a question for a patent agent on the actual disclosure, not one to settle from a webpage.
We will tell you which of those four applies to what you have described, at the free review stage, before you spend anything.
Provisional or complete specification
A provisional specification records your invention and secures a filing date while the work is still moving. A complete specification is the full disclosure with the claims that define what you are asking to own.
| Provisional specification | Complete specification | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Fixes a filing date for what it discloses | Sets out the invention fully, with claims |
| When you use it | The invention works but the detail, the variants or the commercial shape are still developing | The invention is settled, or the twelve months are up |
| The catch | It only protects what it actually discloses. A thin provisional buys a date for very little | It is the document the claims are read from, for twenty years |
| Cost | The same Form 1 fee | The same Form 1 fee |
Filing a provisional does not make the work cheaper. It buys time, and it buys it only for the matter you actually disclosed.
The twelve-month window
Section 9 is strict. Where an application for a patent, not being a convention application, is accompanied by a provisional specification, a complete specification must be filed within twelve months from the date of filing of the application, and if it is not so filed the application is deemed to be abandoned. A request to the Controller with the prescribed fee can extend the filing of the complete specification to fifteen months from that date.
So the calendar matters more than anything else on this page. Diarise the twelve-month date on the day the provisional is filed.
Publication at eighteen months
Applications are published in the official journal at eighteen months from the date of filing, or from the date of priority, whichever is earlier. Publication is what puts the invention into the public domain as a disclosure, and it is also what lets others see and oppose it.
You can ask for earlier publication on Form 9, at ₹2,500 for the concessional category and ₹12,500 for other applicants. Early publication is worth considering where you need the application visible for a funding round, a licensing conversation or an enforcement position. It is worth avoiding where you would rather competitors did not see the disclosure yet.
Examination is not automatic
Nothing happens to your application until you ask for it to be examined. This catches people who assume filing is the end of the work.
The request for examination is filed on Form 18, and since the Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2024, which came into force on 15 March 2024, it must be filed within thirty-one months from the date of earliest priority, or the filing date, whichever is earlier. The window before that amendment was forty-eight months, which is why a great deal of what you will read online is wrong.
Miss it and the application is treated as withdrawn. There is no reviving it with a late fee.
Expedited examination is available on Form 18A, at ₹8,000 for the concessional category and ₹60,000 for other applicants, e-filing only. It is the route worth costing where a startup needs a grant inside a funding or product timeline.
The first examination report and your reply window
The Patent Office issues a first examination report setting out the objections, which are usually novelty, inventive step, section 3, clarity of claims and formal requirements.
The base period to put the application in order is six months from the issue of the report. A further three months can be obtained on a request in Form 4 with the prescribed fee, and the request can be made at any time within that extended period, so the outer limit is nine months from the issue of the report.
Two things to handle in the same window:
- Form 3. Updated details of corresponding foreign applications must be filed within three months of the first examination report, with a three-month extension available.
- The reply itself. Amending claims to get around a section 3 objection is drafting work, and it narrows what you will own. It is the point at which the quality of the original specification shows.
Official fees
All figures below are the e-filing rates from the First Schedule to the Patents Rules, 2003. Physical filing carries a 10% premium. "Concessional" means a natural person, a startup, a small entity or an educational institution; "other applicants" means everybody else, which for most of our clients means a company or an LLP that is not a small entity.
Filing and examination
| Item | Concessional | Other applicants |
|---|---|---|
| Form 1, application for grant of a patent | ₹1,600 (₹1,750 physical) | ₹8,000 (₹8,800 physical) |
| Form 9, request for early publication | ₹2,500 (₹2,750 physical) | ₹12,500 (₹13,750 physical) |
| Form 18, request for examination, ordinary application | ₹4,000 (₹4,400 physical) | ₹20,000 (₹22,000 physical) |
| Form 18A, request for expedited examination | ₹8,000, e-filing only | ₹60,000, e-filing only |
The concessional band is roughly one fifth of the other band on filing, which is why entity status is the first thing we establish. It has to be evidenced, and where any co-applicant falls outside the category, the higher rate applies to the whole application.
Note one exception we confirm before quoting: the First Schedule carries a higher Form 18 rate where the request for examination follows an international application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. If your filing has a PCT history, the examination fee is not the figure in the table above, and we confirm the applicable column before anything is paid.
Renewal fees
A granted patent is kept alive by paying renewal fees, and they start from the third year.
| Years | Concessional | Other applicants |
|---|---|---|
| 3rd to 6th year | ₹800 per year (₹880 physical) | ₹4,000 per year (₹4,400 physical) |
| 7th year onwards | The First Schedule steps the fee up in later bands. We confirm your year-by-year figures before grant, rather than publishing a schedule we have not verified in full |
The renewal fee rises over the life of the patent by design, so that patents nobody is using are allowed to lapse.
Our professional fee
| What we do | Regikart fee |
|---|---|
| Free review: is it an invention, does section 3 bite, has it already been disclosed, and which right actually fits | Free |
| Entity status and fee-band determination, and the evidence pack for the concessional rate | Fee on quote |
| Assignment of the invention from founders, employees or contractors to the company, drafted before filing | Fee on quote |
| Drafting the specification, prior-art searching, filing and prosecution | Done by a registered patent agent. Quoted separately, in writing, before any work starts |
Professional fees exclude GST at 18%. Government fees, where they apply, are paid at actuals to the department and are shown separately. Fees verified on 27 September 2026.
After grant: renewals, working statements and opposition
A granted patent runs for twenty years from the date of filing, and three obligations follow it.
- Renewals. Payable from the third year, at the rates above. A lapse for non-payment is the most common way a patent is lost.
- The working statement. The patentee files a statement of working on Form 27. Since the Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2024, it is filed once every three financial years, within six months from the expiry of each such period, and the form itself was simplified.
- Opposition. A patent can be opposed before grant and after grant. On a pre-grant opposition, the 2024 amendment reduced the applicant's time to respond to two months, and requires the Controller to consider whether a prima facie case is made out and to notify the opponent within one month where it is not.
Patent, design, copyright or trade secret
Most of the inventions people bring us are better served by something other than a patent, or by a patent plus something else.
| Patent | Design | Copyright | Kept confidential | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Protects | A new, non-obvious, industrially applicable invention | The shape, pattern or ornamentation of an article | Code, text, artwork, music, film | Anything you can keep secret |
| Law | Patents Act, 1970 | Designs Act, 2000 | Copyright Act, 1957 | Contract, and the common law of confidence |
| Registration | Yes, and it must be granted | Yes | The right arises on creation; registration is evidence | None |
| Term | 20 years from filing | 10 years, extendable by 5 | 60 years, measured by work type | As long as it stays secret |
| Official fee | ₹1,600 or ₹8,000 to file, plus examination and renewals | ₹1,000 for individuals, startups and small entities, or ₹4,000 for others, per design per class | ₹500 per literary work, ₹2,000 for artwork used on goods or services | None |
| The trade-off | You disclose the invention in exchange for the monopoly | Protects how it looks, not how it works | Protects the expression, not the idea | No monopoly, and it ends the day it leaks |
The disclosure trade-off is the decision. A patent is published and read by your competitors. A process that is hard to reverse-engineer from the product is often better kept confidential, with the confidentiality built into employment and vendor documents: see non-disclosure agreement and service agreement.
Before you file: three things that cost people their patent
- You published it first. A pitch deck on a website, a demo at a trade fair, a paper, a Kickstarter page or a product launch can destroy novelty. If any of that has happened, say so at the first conversation and say when. It changes the advice completely, and hiding it wastes the fee.
- The company does not own the invention. An invention made by a founder before incorporation, or by a contractor, does not belong to the company by default. Get the assignment signed before filing, not during due diligence two years later: see legal contract drafting.
- The provisional was too thin. A provisional buys a date only for what it discloses. A two-page note that describes the objective rather than the invention buys a date for very little, and you discover that when the complete specification is drafted twelve months later.
What we need from you
- A plain description of the invention, two paragraphs, with what problem it solves and what specifically is new about your way of solving it.
- Any drawings, diagrams, schematics or test data you already have.
- What you have already published or shown, with dates: website, deck, demo, paper, video, marketplace listing.
- Who made it, and their relationship to the company: founder, employee, consultant, external lab or academic collaborator.
- Entity details, and the evidence for the concessional band: DPIIT startup recognition, Udyam registration or small enterprise proof, or educational institution status.
- Any foreign filing, or intention to file abroad, because the corresponding-application disclosures and the timelines change.
Why founders bring patents to Regikart
Regikart is a CA and CS firm with 250+ clients. Patent drafting and filing on our engagements is done by a registered patent agent we work with. The reviewer for this page is CA Ganpat Khemka.
- We say no early. Most of what arrives here is caught by section 3, or has already been published. Hearing that in a free review, in writing, is the most valuable thing this page offers.
- The fee band is settled first. ₹1,600 against ₹8,000 on filing, and ₹4,000 against ₹20,000 on examination, turns on entity status and its evidence. We get that right before anything is paid.
- Ownership before filing. Founder, employee and contractor assignments are drafted first, so the applicant on the record is the entity that will raise money on it.
- The rest of the startup stack in one place: DPIIT recognition, the 80-IAC tax holiday, valuation under Rule 11UA and the IP schedule an investor will ask for in due diligence.
- Offices in Kolkata (Head Office), Delhi and Bengaluru, with clients across India served online. Call or WhatsApp +91 70444 94804, or email [email protected].
Related: trademark registration · copyright registration · logo registration · startup india registration · non-disclosure agreement · legal contract drafting