[sammyboy]

Originally Posted by vina

Everyone

I have a friend who came up with a pretty cool idea; now we want to get a patent on that.

Anybody knows the procedure and costs involved if we want to do it on our own (rather than go through a lawyer)?

We would eventually want to do a foreign filing in US and Europe as well.

I really dont know much about this but I know someone who has a firm which takes care of patent related work. Apologies if this doesnt meet your requirement, not really my line of work.

Name of the company is tekip . Use the dot com and see if it helps.

All the best.
p.s. Disclaimer: I am in no way involved with his work or his firm.

[Aiel]

Originally Posted by vina

Everyone

I have a friend who came up with a pretty cool idea; now we want to get a patent on that.

Anybody knows the procedure and costs involved if we want to do it on our own (rather than go through a lawyer)?

We would eventually want to do a foreign filing in US and Europe as well.

The first step would be to check if the idea already exists. The easiest way for a layperson to do this would be to use free patent databases. I typically suggest Google Patents (https://patents.google.com/) for the same. Based on the search results, you can decide on whether to proceed with the filing.

If there are no references for the same or you are able to differentiate your invention from the existing solutions, you can proceed for drafting. For drafting, I would suggest using professional help, as there are a lot of intricacies, tips, and guidelines which have to be followed. I have seen people who draft on their own, having to face issues during the examination process done by the Patent Office.

Once the draft is completed, the first filing has to be done in India (as you are based in India and the invention originated in India). Else, if you do not want to file in India, you can seek permission from the Indian Patent Office before filing outside India (which typically takes about 3-4 weeks). Considering that the filing in India is done first, you have to wait for a minimum of 6 weeks from the filing date to file outside India, using the filing date. The filing has to be done upto a time limit of 12 months from the filing date.

You can proceed to file in Us and Europe. The patent process in each country/jurisdiction will be independent and will follow its due course.

Coming to the Government costs, India will be the cheapest and will come to around 1-2 Lakhs for the entire cycle (spread over 4-5 years). US will come in around $700-800 for the filing at the least and an additional cost of upto $10K can be expected. Europe is the costliest and is about 1.5 time the US costs. also, Europe does not have a single patent covering entire Europe. A patent filed at the Central European Patent Office will be have to be ‘filed’ separately in each country, after the Patent Office grants it.

The following links are a few presentations giving a basic look at the process:
- Patent Process
- Patent Search
- Patent Draft

Note: The above presentations have been given by my colleague and me at various forums and have been included for information purposes.

[vina]

Thanks a lot tsk, I didn't find the thread on my first search