How much does a patent cost?

The cost of a patent depends on your patent attorney, the complexity of your invention and other factors, like the procedure you follow and the number of countries where you want to protect your invention.

There are several patent procedures and they all have different costs (such as expert fees, filing fees, translation costs, etc.). The most common procedures are:

- National - Patents are filed with the national patent office – ca. EUR 6,000;

- European - For protection in European countries you can file a patent with the European Patent Office (EPO) – ca. EUR 10,000 – EUR 15,000;

- Worldwide (international) - If you want your invention protected all over the world you can follow the procedure of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) – ca. EUR 10,000.

After the filing of your European or PCT application, you will have to designate the countries in which you want patent protection for your invention. For each of these countries you will then have to pay yearly fees to maintain your patent for that country. Patent costs (and consequently maintenance costs) can therefore increase considerably, depending on your choice of countries (click here for more information on the European and PCT fees).