The European Patent Office today has announced the publication of a paper titled "The cost of a sample European patent - new estimates including a study on the cost of patenting" which appears to be based on a study carried out by Roland Berger Market Research in 2004.
I do not know why this rather old paper has been advertised by EPO only just now.
"[...] Motivation
The purpose of publishing an estimate of the cost of a European patent is to provide a simple quantitative barometer of the level and major components of that cost, with a view to providing information to the policy debate and applicants with an order of the cost they will incur. This cost estimate should identify the cost drivers as well as the share of the EPO in the total cost. However, in view of the divers cost levels - field of technology, filing routes, patentee's strategy etc. - a single figure cannot give a reasonable estimate of the expected cost of a particular patent application.1 Nevertheless, the figures should be informative enough for a newcomer to the EPO procedure to obtain a reasonable cost estimate.
In 2004, the EPO decided to update and complement former cost estimates. For that purpose, it commissioned a survey of applicants and attorneys which was carried out by Roland Berger Market Research. That approach guaranteed methodological quality and independence of the survey. Roland Berger queried applicants as well as attorneys and translation services and considered also certain cost components that had been omitted (at least explicitly) in earlier estimates, notably pre-filing costs and in-house costs.
On the basis of the Roland Berger survey, as well as of sources informing of the current EPO and national fees, the EPO has estimated both the cost of an average Euro-direct and Euro-PCT patent. Figures in this introduction, however, refer to the Roland Berger study only, not to the estimates made by the EPO which differ from the study in that they reflect a slightly different cost concept and are also inflation-adjusted.
A survey of more than 250 companies
The study carried out by Roland Berger consists of a survey of 254 companies that have obtained patents by the EPO in 2002/3. The sample included 160 European, 43 US and 51 Japanese companies from all industries, including also 34 SMEs. Respondents were asked to evaluate the cost components of a typical and representative patent of theirs. This business survey was complemented by surveys of translation services and attorneys in order to cross-check the results. It turned out that results from these two smaller surveys are essentially consistent with the survey of patentees.
Major results of the survey
As reported by respondents, the typical Euro-direct patent has 10 claims on 3 pages, 11 pages of description and is validated in 6 countries. The total cost of obtaining a standard Euro-direct patent in 2003 was EUR 30 530 (pp. 97, 117), including:
pre-filing expenditure excluding R&D (EUR 6 240),
internal cost of processing (EUR 3 070),
attorney fees (EUR 4 930),
translation of application and claims (EUR 3 020),
official EPO fees (EUR 3 410),
validation (EUR 9 870).
The cost of a Euro-PCT patent was EUR 46 700 (p. 117). The difference with Euro-direct comes mainly from:
higher translation cost due to a higher number of pages (18 pages description, 15 claims on 5 pages),
supplementary official fees related to the international phase, and
validation in a larger number of countries (8 instead of 6).
[...]"
The amount of costs for validation (read: translation into the various national Official languages) appears to be quite remarkable. We urgently need the London Agreement which is, on the political stage, unfortunately blocked by France up to now.
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Dipl.-Phys. Axel H Horns is Patentanwalt (German Patent Attorney),
European Patent Attorney as well as European Trade Mark Attorney. In particular, he is Member of:
European Patent Office today has announced the publication of a 
