Costs and fees
Expenses and fees for patent protection include:
- Preliminary searches, developing the patent application strategy and preparing the technical documents
- Support from specialists, e.g. a patent attorney
- Application fee
- Translating the patent application and patent specification
- Fees for searches and the patent examination
- Renewal fees for keeping the patent in force
- Costs for enforcing the patent
The fees usually make up only a part of the total cost. Costs for professional advice and representation before the IP offices can, in particular, be high.
Overview of the most important fees in the Swiss, European and international patent procedures
Status as of 1 April 2018
- Fees in bold are compulsory.
- Please note that fees may regularly be subject to change.
Swiss patent applications | ||
|---|---|---|
| Application fee | CHF | 200 |
| Search fee | CHF | 500 |
| For each additional claim from the 11th patent claim | CHF | 50 |
| Examination fee | CHF | 500 |
| Fee for expedited examination (the examination fee must be paid before the examination) | CHF | 200 |
| Renewal fees For the 4th year after filing the application | CHF | 100 |
| For each subsequent year, the annual fee increases by CHF 50 (CHF 150 for the 5th year, CHF 200 for the 6th year, etc. up to CHF 900 for the 20th year after filing the application). | ||
| Supplementary fee for the late payment of an annual fee | CHF | 50 |
| Further processing fee | CHF | 100 |
| Reinstatement fee | CHF | 500 |
| Opposition fee | CHF | 800 |
| International search for first-time applications (executed by the European Patent Office) | CHF | 1315 |
| European patent applications | ||
|---|---|---|
| Schedule of fees, costs and prices of the European Patent Office |
| PCT Patent registrations | ||
|---|---|---|
| International filing fee (up to 30 pages incl. application form) | CHF | 1330 |
| For each additional page from the 31st page | CHF | 15 |
| Reduction when filing electronically | ||
| if the application is in character-coded format | CHF | 200 |
| if the application, the description, the claims and the abstract are in character-coded format | CHF | 300 |
| International Search fee | CHF | 2059 |
| Transmittal fee | CHF | 100 |
| Supplementary fee for late payment 50% of the fee paid; min. CHF 100, max. CHF 665 | ||
| Fee for preliminary examination | EUR | 1830* |
| Processing fee for preliminary examination | EUR | 175* |
| *(these fees have to be paid directly to the European Patent Office) |
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