Costs of applying for & maintaining a UK patent: a quick guide

Patents are more than just ensuring you retain the rights to your own creative ideas.

By ring-fencing your innovations and deterring competitors in a competitive marketplace, a robust patent protection strategy can support your product’s future growth by attracting investors.

But whilst the immense competitive value of a patent is obvious, the financial cost can be less clear.

For innovators, startups and SMEs new to the world of IP but wanting to protect their ideas in the UK, there are two types of expenses to account for: official fees (for paperwork, paid to the UK Intellectual Property Office) and professional fees (for a specialist patent attorney).

Complexity dictates cost: the difficulties of pricing up patent protection #

As you might expect, there are many variables that impact the cost of securing patent protection. To avoid any hidden surprises, it’s essential to go into the process ‘eyes wide open’.

Expenses tend to scale with the technical complexity of your innovation. For example, securing protection for a simple mechanical tool will be far less costly than for some advanced pharmaceuticals or software.

Other elements beyond complexity include any objections raised against the request during examination at the patent office, and the length of time you want to keep the patent in force – renewal costs grow incrementally each year. A patent attorney can guide you through these considerations.

The UK patent protection process: a basic guide to costs #

The bare minimum you can expect to pay for the patent application process is £405. This figure covers official fees for administration, including the filing, patent search and substantive examination.

However, your expenses are most likely to exceed this. Attorney fees for professional drafting and prosecution (the legal process of securing the patent) can range into the thousands.

As we discuss in more detail later on, hiring a professional is not something to be seen as a cost to be managed, but as added value to capitalise on. A patent attorney will work strategically to ensure your claims withstand scrutiny and prevent competitors designing around your inventions.

Getting a patent requires you to prove the novelty of your invention. The requirements associated with doing so can vary dramatically depending on the complexity of your innovations. Patents are always deeply scrutinised before being granted and any objections must be responded to, which a specialist patent attorney can assist with.

A ‘DIY’ approach to patent drafting may be tempting, especially with the rise of artificial intelligence tools. And whilst it is possible to submit applications without specialist support, a poorly-drafted patent brings significant potential risk which can prove more costly and damaging in the long term.

Official fees: from £405 #

There are a number of fees payable to the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) at set times during the application process:

• Basic filing: Once you are sure your innovation meets the criteria for novelty, you can prepare your documentation and file it with the UKIPO. The cost for basic filing is £75 for online applications.
• Search fees: Prior art searches establish the novelty of your application, ensuring nothing else similar exists in the public domain or has been previously granted a patent. These have a £200 fee, followed by a £27 fee per claim fee after the initial 25 claims.
• Substantive examination: This involves interrogating all of the information provided to this stage, evaluating claims made and reviewing the information from the prior art searches. Fees are £130, plus £13 for each page of description over 35 pages.

The UKIPO increased these fees effective 1 April 2026.

It is very possible that searches, additional pages, deadline extensions and so on will result in you incurring some additional costs as the process moves forward.

In the future, you may also wish to pursue divisional applications. These are secondary applications filed for distinct inventions originally described in your first (parent) application, but not covered by its primary claims.

Each divisional will be treated as a separate item and will incur similar official and professional costs to the parent request.

Post-grant maintenance and renewal fees: from £90 up to £810 per year #

Each patent, if granted, must be maintained. You begin this process on the fourth anniversary of when you filed it and each year thereafter.

For year 5 you must pay £90 to renew the legal protection for another year. This fee grows in increments each year for a maximum of 20 years, reaching £230 by year 10 and £810 by year 20.

So, over the lifetime of the patent, renewal fees will cost at least £6,160. Bear in mind too that you may also incur surcharges if you fail to pay for your renewal in time.

Professional support: into the thousands #

An attorney can provide support at all key stages of the patent process:

• Initial advice and patentability search: Involves a professional search of existing technology. This will evaluate the novelty of the invention and provide a clear legal opinion on its eligibility for protection.
• Drafting the patent specification: This is a detailed technical description and a set of legal claims that define your invention’s scope. The aim is to ensure it meets statutory requirements for protection.
• Responding to patent reports: The attorney will prepare and file formal legal responses to any objections or prior art citations raised by patent examiners.

As we’ve already emphasised, the complexity of your invention(s) will play a key role in determining overall professional costs.

A straightforward food and drink product may require an investment in the £10,000 region to cover all of these stages, whilst an AI or life science invention could cost many multiples of this.

You should enquire with a patent specialist for a more concrete figure.

The value of specialist support with your applications  #

It is possible to submit an application without support, but owing to the complexity of the patent process and the ramifications of potential mistakes, professional support is highly recommended.

A badly-drafted patent is worthless. Common pitfalls by inexperienced innovators include:

• Prior public disclosure: Accidentally sharing the invention publicly before filing, thus destroying its novelty.
• Narrow or defective claims: Drafting claims that are too specific, giving competitors the ability to ‘design around’ the patent.
• Missing deadlines: You could forfeit your rights if you happen to miss one of the UKIPO’s strict timelines and deadlines.

Hiring a patent attorney will not only make securing the patent much more likely, but also reduce the risk of runaway or unexpected costs.

The importance of professional support becomes even clearer if you are considering global IP filing in jurisdictions outside of the UK in the future, such as in the US, China or Germany.

This is because you generally have 12 months from your UK filing date to ‘claim priority’ and extend your protection overseas. This can be done by filing a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application for global reach or a European Patent Office (EPO) application for regional protection. If your European patent proceeds to grant, you could also explore the Unitary Patent route.

As a strategic approach, this allows you to preserve your filing date worldwide and defer costs whilst you decide which markets to target.

Discover your true IP worth with Murgitroyd #

To ensure that you secure patent protection as efficiently and cost effectively as possible, the importance of expert support can’t be overstated.

Founded in Glasgow in 1975 and with 12 offices across the UK and 22 globally, we offer a market-leading IP service for innovators looking to protect their ideas in the UK and beyond.

Whatever your specialism or sector, we’ll be able to give you clarity and certainty over all associated costs.

Our team will also be able to support you in evaluating the novelty of your innovation, conducting the relevant searches and continually evaluating the landscape to maximise your IP potential.

Start your journey to UK patent protection: talk to us today.