Patent filing for startups in India costs about 80% less in official fees, a reduced scale that also covers small entities, natural persons and educational institutions, but fees are not everything. A public disclosure before filing, or an overseas filing without permission, can defeat an Indian patent. This guide covers the eight things a startup founder needs to know.
This guide covers India under the Patents Act, 1970 and the Patents Rules, 2003, as amended in 2024, with the international points that affect the India filing decision.
Quick answer: File before any public disclosure; India has no general grace period. A startup recognised under the Startup India initiative (in practice, DPIIT recognition) e-files the application for a base official fee of ₹1,600, covering up to 30 pages and 10 claims, and requests examination for ₹4,000, attaching Form 28 to every fee-bearing document. If you are resident in India, get a foreign filing licence before filing abroad unless the same invention was filed in India at least six weeks earlier and no secrecy direction is in force, and calendar the request for examination at 31 months from the priority or filing date, whichever is earlier.
At a Glance
Eight things decide most startup patent outcomes in India, and only the first turns on the technology itself: patentability, disclosure, the fees, who qualifies for the concession, the provisional route, the foreign filing licence, the examination request, and what a grant actually gives. Each has its own section below.
File before public disclosure: India has no general grace period for an inventor’s own voluntary public disclosure. A provisional specification can secure an early priority date, but only for what it actually discloses. A priority date is the date a claim takes from the earliest specification that fairly supports it, and it is the date against which novelty is judged.
Startups, small entities, natural persons and educational institutions pay lower official fees; where the applicant claims startup, small-entity or educational-institution status, Form 28 must be filed with each fee-bearing document. Residents in India must obtain a foreign filing licence before filing abroad, unless an application for the same invention was made in India at least six weeks earlier and no secrecy direction is in force. The request for examination is due 31 months from the priority date or filing date, whichever is earlier, with a transitional 48-month period for applications filed before 15 March 2024.
Is My Startup’s Invention Patentable in India?
Under the Act, an invention must be a new product or process that involves an inventive step and is capable of industrial application. An inventive step means the invention shows a technical advance compared to existing knowledge, or has economic significance, or both, and is not obvious to a person skilled in that field.
The Act also lists what is not an invention. Four exclusions are especially relevant for startups. First, a mathematical or business method, a computer programme per se or an algorithm is not patentable. A software startup can still obtain patent protection where the claimed invention demonstrates a technical effect or technical contribution, and so is more than a computer programme claimed as such, but the boundary matters and a patentability analysis before filing is worth the time. The CRI Guidelines 2025 set out the Patent Office’s examination framework for computer-related inventions, though they do not override the Act or the Rules. For life-sciences and health-tech startups, two further exclusions matter: a substance obtained by mere admixture that only aggregates the properties of its components (and a process for producing it), and any process for the medicinal, surgical, curative, prophylactic, diagnostic, therapeutic or other treatment of humans, or a similar treatment of animals to render them free of disease or to increase their economic value or that of their products. A diagnostic device or a formulation with a combined effect beyond its components may still be claimed; the method of treatment itself may not.
Second, the mere discovery of a new form of a known substance which does not result in the enhancement of the known efficacy of that substance is not an invention. This is significant for life-science and pharmaceutical startups evaluating whether a new formulation supports a patent claim.
Before filing, a prior art and patentability search helps assess whether the invention clears these bars; it does not determine freedom to operate, which is a separate question about other people’s patents. The broader patent law framework in India sets out how these requirements interact across the filing and grant process.
Why Disclosing Too Early Can Defeat Your Patent
India has no general grace period for an inventor’s own voluntary public disclosure. If a startup founder describes the invention at a demo day, posts about it publicly, or presents it at a conference before filing a patent application, and the disclosure is enough to teach the invention, it enters the state of the art.
It can then be cited against the application in examination. The novelty requirement in Indian patent law is assessed as of the priority date: the invention must not have been anticipated by publication anywhere in the world before that date.
The Act does contain narrow savings. A disclosure of matter obtained from the applicant, or from a person from whom the applicant derives title, and published without that person’s consent is saved where, if the applicant or that person learned of the publication before filing, the application was made as soon as reasonably practicable afterwards, provided the invention had not already been commercially worked in India before the priority date, other than for reasonable trial, by the applicant, a predecessor in title or anyone acting with their consent. A display, with the inventor’s consent, at a government-notified exhibition, or a paper read by the inventor before a learned society or published in its transactions with the inventor’s consent, is saved provided the inventor or successor files within 12 months of the exhibition opening or the reading or publication of the paper, and the grace period is claimed on Form 31, at ₹500 for a reduced-fee applicant or ₹2,500 for others on e-filing. Public working of the invention in India within one year before the priority date is saved where the working was by the applicant, a predecessor in title or someone acting with their consent, was for reasonable trial only, and it was reasonably necessary, given the nature of the invention, for that trial to be in public. These are narrow, conditional exceptions, not a general one-year window.
The practical rule for a startup is simple: file first, disclose after. Where pitching or fundraising before filing is unavoidable, a written non-disclosure agreement signed by each party before the conversation is the minimum precaution, though the Act’s savings do not turn on such an agreement. Do not rely on it casually: if the information reaches the public, the agreement gives a contractual claim against the discloser, and the statutory saving for matter obtained from the applicant, or from a person from whom the applicant derives title, and published without consent applies only where, if the applicant or that person learned of the publication before filing, the application was made as soon as reasonably practicable afterwards, and where the invention was not commercially worked in India before the priority date, other than for reasonable trial, by the applicant, a predecessor in title or anyone acting with their consent.
What Patent Filing for Startups in India Actually Costs
Patent filing for startups in India is significantly cheaper than for other entities, but the official fees are not a single number: they scale with the number of pages in the specification and the number of claims beyond the base limits.
The figures below are the e-filing figures from the fee schedule as substituted in March 2024, verified as of September 2026.
| Step | Form | Startup, small entity, natural person or educational institution (e-filing) | Others (e-filing) |
| Application with specification (up to 30 pages, up to 10 claims) | Form 1 | ₹1,600 | ₹8,000 |
| Each sheet beyond 30, excluding sequence listing | Form 1 | ₹160 | ₹800 |
| Each claim beyond 10 | Form 1 | ₹320 | ₹1,600 |
| Complete specification after a provisional (base) | Form 2 | No base fee; excess-page, excess-claim and other applicable fees remain payable | No base fee; excess-page, excess-claim and other applicable fees remain payable |
| Request for examination | Form 18 | ₹4,000 | ₹20,000 |
| Expedited examination | Form 18A | ₹8,000 (fee scale only; see eligibility below) | ₹60,000 |
| Foreign filing licence request | Form 25 | ₹1,600 | ₹8,000 |
| Claiming startup or small-entity status | Form 28 | No fee | No fee |
Physical filing attracts a higher fee (₹1,750 for a startup against ₹8,800 for others for the base application) and is not available for expedited examination. The Form 18A row shows the fee scale only: expedited examination is open to startups and small entities as such, but a natural-person application qualifies only where the applicant, or at least one of joint natural-person applicants, is female, and educational-institution status is not by itself a ground; the other grounds are government-linked applicants, notified sectors, India as the international searching or examining authority, and applicants under an arrangement with a foreign office. A startup, small entity or educational institution must file Form 28 alongside each fee-bearing document to claim the reduced fee; natural persons qualify for the lower fee scale without Form 28. Where a reduced-fee applicant files jointly with an applicant outside the reduced-fee categories, the higher fee applies to the whole application.
Losing startup status after filing does not trigger a back-payment. The Rules provide that where a startup or small entity, having filed an application, ceases to be one because the period of its recognition lapses or its turnover crosses the notified threshold, no difference in the scale of fees becomes payable. Form 28 accompanies each later fee-bearing document whenever the reduced category is claimed, so eligibility is checked at each step. That protection does not extend to assignment: if the application is transferred to an applicant outside the reduced-fee categories, the new applicant must pay the fee difference with the transfer request.
The fees above cover official charges only. Professional fees for a patent agent or attorney are additional and vary with the complexity of the specification and the prosecution that follows.
Who Qualifies for the Startup Patent Fee Concession?
The reduced fee scale applies to four categories of applicant: startups recognised by the competent authority under the Startup India initiative (in practice, DPIIT recognition), small entities, natural persons, and educational institutions.
A foreign entity qualifies as a startup by meeting the Startup India initiative’s criteria for turnover and for the period of incorporation or registration, and submitting a declaration to that effect. A small entity is defined by reference to the investment limits for a medium enterprise under the MSME Development Act 2006. Those limits are set under that Act rather than in the Patents Rules, so check the current figure before relying on the reduced scale.
A startup that is not yet DPIIT-recognised may still qualify for the lower fee scale if it satisfies the small-entity definition. In Intepat’s experience, Form 28 for an Indian applicant is supported by MSME or Udyam registration evidence, though the Rules specify the eligibility criteria rather than mandating a particular document. Eligibility should be checked before each fee-bearing filing.
The concession should not be claimed casually. A startup or small entity must verify its eligibility before each fee-bearing filing; the Form 28 declaration is a statement to the Patent Office and should be made only where eligibility has been confirmed.
File a Provisional Specification to Lock Your Date
A provisional patent application is appropriate where the inventive concept can already be described with sufficient technical detail, although the claims or final embodiments remain under development. The provisional specification need not contain claims, but a later claim receives the provisional date only to the extent it is fairly based on that disclosure.
Material first added in the complete specification receives the later date. The complete specification must then be filed within 12 months of the provisional filing date. If it is not, the application is deemed abandoned. Where a startup files several provisionals for cognate inventions and the Controller allows one complete specification to cover them all, that 12 months runs from the earliest of those provisionals, not the latest. No extension exists for this 12-month deadline; the general power to condone delay does not reach it, and post-dating cannot extend it.
The value of the provisional route is a fixed priority date for what has already been worked out, with 12 months to finalise the claims, validate the market or raise seed funding before committing to the complete specification. Filing a provisional does not itself reduce the base official application fee; the same fee applies whichever specification accompanies the application. Any foreign or PCT filing that is to claim the Indian date must be made within 12 months of the Indian filing.
Filing Abroad? Get a Foreign Filing Licence First
The Act prohibits any person resident in India from applying for a patent outside India without either a written permit from the Controller, or having filed an application for the same invention in India at least six weeks before the overseas application with no secrecy direction in force on the Indian application.
The rule applies to residents, whatever their nationality, and does not apply to an invention first filed abroad by a person resident outside India.
The consequence of getting this wrong is severe. A contravention renders the Indian patent application deemed abandoned, and any patent already granted in India is liable to be revoked.
A foreign filing licence (also commonly searched as foreign filing license) is obtained on Form 25, at ₹1,600 for a reduced-fee applicant or ₹8,000 for others. This is the correct route where a startup wants to file abroad before the six-week waiting period has elapsed. The Controller must dispose of the request within 21 days of filing, though for inventions relating to defence or atomic energy the 21 days runs from the Central Government’s consent, so those take longer.
Separately, an applicant prosecuting a corresponding application abroad must file a statement of foreign applications on Form 3 within six months of filing, and must then update the Controller on subsequent foreign applications within three months of the first statement of objections, commonly called the first examination report. The Controller may also use accessible databases to check foreign-application information, or may, for reasons recorded in writing, direct the applicant to furnish a fresh Form 3 within two months of that communication. For startups filing in multiple jurisdictions, this should be treated as an active item: maintain a foreign-filing tracker showing country, application number, filing date and current status so that Form 3 information can be updated when required.
Where international coverage is the goal, the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) route allows a startup to file a single international application that has the effect of a national filing in each designated contracting state and defers the individual national-phase costs; it does not grant a multinational patent, and each national phase must still be entered and examined under that country’s requirements. The deferral is not indefinite: entry into India must be made within 31 months of the priority date, and an international application designating India is deemed to be withdrawn if that is missed. The PCT filing route for Indian startups covers how this works in practice, and the Indian Patent Office’s e-filing portal is where both the Indian application and the Form 25 request are filed. A full guide to the foreign filing licence procedure sets out the Form 25 application step by step.
Filing Is Not Enough: You Must Request Examination
Filing a patent application does not trigger automatic examination. The application is published after 18 months from the priority date or the filing date, whichever is earlier, but examination only begins when the applicant, or any other interested person, files a request for examination.
Publication is not universal. It does not occur where a secrecy direction is in force, where the application has been deemed abandoned for want of a complete specification, or where it has been withdrawn three months before that 18-month point.
For applications filed on or after 15 March 2024, the request for examination must be filed on Form 18 within 31 months from the priority date or the filing date, whichever is earlier; applications filed before that date keep the earlier 48-month period. If the request is not filed in time the application is treated as withdrawn. The Controller’s general power to correct procedural irregularities cannot reach that period; the only express route in the Rules is a discretionary request on Form 4 within six months of the expiry, which the Controller may grant or refuse, and whether a condonation displaces the withdrawal is not settled.
Startups may request expedited examination on Form 18A. In the expedited stream the examiner’s report is due within two months of the Controller’s reference to the examiner, compared with three months in the standard stream, and the first examination report follows within fifteen days of the Controller disposing of it, compared with one month. The examiner’s period runs from the Controller’s reference and the report period from the Controller’s disposal of it; neither runs from the date the request is filed. The Rules fix the steps after reference, not the overall duration, so in practice the wait for that reference is what decides the time from request to first examination report. That wait, in Intepat’s recent prosecution experience, has run to 12 to 24 months in the standard stream and materially less in the expedited stream.
The expedited examination fee for a startup is ₹8,000 (e-filing), compared with ₹60,000 for other entities. The standard request-for-examination fee is ₹4,000 for a startup and ₹20,000 for others, so expedited examination costs a startup twice the standard fee but delivers a materially faster path to first examination.
Once examination begins, the applicant has six months from the first statement of objections to put the application in order for grant. The six-month period may be extended by up to three months on Form 4; since the 2024 amendment the Rules require the request before the expiry of “the period specified herein”, wording that permits the request within the maximum nine-month window, though the safer course is to file it within the first six months.
The patent then runs for 20 years from the filing date. Renewal fees are payable from the third year onwards, the fee for the third year falling due before the second year from the date of the patent expires. Where grant comes more than two years after filing, as it often does, the renewal fees that have accrued in the meantime may be paid within three months of the patent being recorded in the register, or within an extended period ending no later than nine months from that date, which must be requested on Form 4 with the prescribed per-month fee. Non-payment within the prescribed period, or any extension, causes the patent to cease to have effect.
A detailed breakdown of the examination process is at the patent request for examination guide. For the complete sequence from application to grant, the step-by-step patent filing procedure covers each stage.
What a Patent Actually Gives You
Subject to the other provisions of the Act and the conditions the Act attaches to a grant, a granted patent confers the exclusive right to prevent third parties who do not have the patentee’s consent from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing for those purposes the patented product in India.
For a process patent, the same exclusivity covers using the process and the product obtained directly by it. This exclusivity runs for 20 years from the filing date, or from the international filing date for a PCT application designating India, and covers India only. For protection in other countries, separate national filings or PCT national-phase entries are needed. A startup that patents in India but not in its key export markets, or in markets where competitors manufacture, should plan its portfolio accordingly.
The patent also confers a property right that can be assigned, licensed or mortgaged, and an assignment or licence is valid only if it is in writing, sets out all the terms and is duly executed. Ownership should be settled before filing: the applicant must be the true and first inventor, that person’s assignee, or the legal representative of a deceased person who was entitled to apply, and where a company applies it must hold the right to apply, ordinarily by written assignment from the founder, employee or contractor who made the invention, with proof of that right furnished to the Office. Subject to any agreement between them and to the Act’s other provisions on co-ownership, where two or more people are named as applicants, each takes an equal undivided share in the patent on grant, and none of them can grant a licence or assign a share without the consent of the others. The choice between filing in the founder’s name or the company’s name is covered separately.
Lenders, investors and acquirers treat a granted patent as a verifiable asset. An application that has been published but not yet granted does not carry the same weight: the applicant has the like privileges and rights from the date of publication, but cannot institute infringement proceedings until the patent has been granted.
Your Pre-Filing Checklist
Before instructing a patent agent to draft the specification, a startup founder should be able to answer the questions below. Each one maps to a rule above, and each unanswered question is where a filing goes wrong later.
- Has a prior art search been done to confirm the invention is new and involves an inventive step?
- Has the invention been disclosed publicly in any form, including pitches, conference presentations or social media, without a prior NDA?
- Is the filing going to be a provisional (to lock the date) or a complete specification, and does the provisional describe the invention in enough detail to support the claims planned?
- Is the startup DPIIT-recognised or does it qualify as a small entity, and is Form 28 ready to accompany each fee-bearing document? (Natural persons do not need it.)
- If a US, EU, PCT or other overseas filing is planned before six weeks from the India filing date, has the foreign filing licence been granted, not merely applied for? If you are relying on the six-week route instead, has it been confirmed that no secrecy direction is in force on the Indian application?
- Have inventorship and ownership been documented before filing, and are written IP assignment obligations already in place with founders, employees, consultants and vendors who contributed to the invention?
- Has the 31-month request for examination deadline been calendared from the expected priority date?
Answering these before the drafting starts avoids the most common and most costly early errors in startup patent filing in India.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Startups, small entities, natural persons and educational institutions pay lower official fees. E-filing costs a startup or small entity ₹1,600 for the base application and ₹4,000 for the request for examination, compared with ₹8,000 and ₹20,000. Startups, small entities and educational institutions file Form 28 (no fee) with each fee-bearing document; natural persons need not.
India has no general grace period: a disclosure before the priority date enters the state of the art and can be cited against you. The narrow exceptions cover non-consensual disclosure, government-notified exhibitions, learned-society papers and reasonable-trial working, and are not a general safety net. The safest approach is to file, then disclose.
Applications filed from 15 March 2024: 31 months from the priority or filing date, whichever is earlier; earlier ones keep 48 months. Miss it and the application is treated as withdrawn. The only express route is a discretionary Form 4 request within six months of the expiry, which the Controller may refuse, with unsettled effect: see the examination request guide.
An Indian resident may not apply for a patent abroad without a written permit from the Controller, unless the same invention was filed in India at least six weeks earlier and no secrecy direction is in force. Filing abroad in breach renders the Indian application deemed abandoned and any granted patent liable to revocation. It is obtained on Form 25.
Yes. A company not recognised as a startup may still claim the lower fee scale if it qualifies as a small entity, its investment in plant and machinery or in equipment staying within the limit set for a medium enterprise under the MSME Development Act 2006, and it files Form 28. In Intepat’s experience Udyam registration evidence supports it.
Not as a computer programme claimed as such. The Act excludes a mathematical or business method, a computer programme per se and an algorithm from patentability. Where the claimed invention demonstrates a technical effect or technical contribution, a patent may be available. The CRI Guidelines 2025 set out the examination framework, though they do not override the Act.
A patent lasts for 20 years from the filing date; for a PCT application designating India, from the international filing date. Renewal fees are payable from the third year, the first due before the end of the second year from the date of the patent, and failure to pay in time causes the patent to cease to have effect.
Legal Disclaimer
This post is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Statutory provisions are cited for reference based on the Patents Act, 1970 and Patents Rules, 2003 as they stand at September 2026, verified against the instruments listed under Sources, including the Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2024 and 2025. Official fees are subject to revision by notification; confirm current figures on the IP India portal before filing, and consult a registered patent agent for guidance on your specific situation.