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European Patent costs

When the first time someone arrives with invention and wants to patent it, then as
always a question number one is – How much will it cost?
In this sample we will show how much does it cost to get European Patent.

We have an invention. We already drafted an application with a help of proffesional

(Patent attorney). I will suggest to take a proffesional, because patent drafting is the
most cruciall phase of patenting. Patent application with mistakes is hard to correct
later. Economy on patent drafting can sometimes guide you to a disaster – spilt
dreams (in the next editions we will discuss on how and where to economy on patent
drafting).

Lets assume that we have professionaly drafted patent application (I give that
example, because cost on patenting can vary depending on volume of the application
(pages, claims, etc.):
Description – 7 pages (1700 words)
Claims – 8 claims (400 words) on 2 pages
Figures – 3 pages
Language – English

European Patent:

Costs for application:

1. Filling fee – 180EUR (not online) or 100EUR (online);
2. Fee for a European search – 760EUR;
3. Designation fee – 85EUR for each European Patent country (max. 7x);
3. Designation fee – 500EUR (for all contracting states designated for applications);
4. Extension fee – 102EUR for each (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina) – we will not
take them. Not our market.
5. Claims fee – 0EUR, because we have 8 claims;
5. Claims fee – 200EUR each. For the 16th to the 50th claim;
5. Claims fee – 500EUR each. For the 51st and each subsequent claim;
6. Certified copy of application; priority document – 0EUR (we don’t have, it our first
application);
7. Certified copy of application; priority document – 40EUR;
All together for our patent application – 1430EUR

After some time, you will receive search report. After that you will be invited to pay
examination fee, which is 1405EUR

Then you will receive examination report with examiner opinion. If its ok, then we
proceed togrant procedure. Fee for grant and printing (not more than 35 pages) or fee
for grant including fee for publication is 790EUR. Additional printing fee for 36th
and each subsequent page is 12EUR. We have only 12 pages and we pay 790EUR.

It costed us 3625EUR. This is a budget option. In real life there is big possibility of
bad examination report. It means some correspondence to European Patent Office,
which can cost you a lot. Once again, dealing with EPO I suggest to use patent
attorneys.
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Once again this is not the end. When the European Patent (EP) is granted it has to be
validated in designated or extended countries. Assume, that we want EP to validate in
France, Italy, Germany, UK, Finland, Estonia and maybe Latvia. Here our costs will
rise sharply. In every of the countries we need to find a proffesional (patent attorney)
who will represent us in their national patent office. We have 7 countries. On average
patent attorney costs will be 300EUR for eash country. 7x300=2100EUR, but we still
need a translation of our EP to be validated in national offices. For example, in Italy
we need full translation of our EP in Itallian. On average 20EUR for 100 words.
Pretty expensive, isn’t? Thanks God, in some countries like in France, Germany, UK
and Latvia only claims have to be translated.
Countries which are under London Aggreement (only claims have to be translated)
are as follows:

• France
• Germany
• Liechtenstein
• Luxembourg
• Monaco
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom
• Croatia (Croatian)
• Denmark (Danish)
• Iceland (Icelandic)
• Latvia (Latvian)
• Lithuania (Lithuanian)
• Netherlands (Dutch)
• Sweden (Swedish)
• Slovenia (Slovene)

Taking into account our given example, we will try to calculate vadidation costs:
Attorney costs – 2100EUR for 7 countries.
Translation of description and claims (20EUR/100words) in Estonia, Italy and
Finland – 3x410EUR=1230EUR.
Translation of claims (20EUR/100words) in Latvia – 80EUR
We do not need a translation for France, Germany and UK, as our patent is in Eglish
and claims are already translated in french and german, because for granting EP it is
necessary to provide a translation for claims in two more official languages of
European Patent Office (sorry, not mentioned above).
Total validation costs – 3410EUR

All in total will be 7035EUR. Please add some 1000EUR as attorney fee for
administering your case during all process. At the end, be ready for 10000EUR at
least.

This is not a guide but a one point of view on patenting in Europe. I hope that this
example will give you some approximations related to the costs of European patent.
This description is not absolute and some mistakes may be present.

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