A UK patent typically costs between £4,000 and £7,000 to reach grant for a straightforward invention, with complex technologies pushing the total above £10,000. Answering how much a patent costs in the UK properly means looking past the application fees paid to the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO), which are a small slice of the bill, to the patent attorney fees that make up most of it and the renewal fees that keep the patent alive for up to 20 years. Over the full life of a patent, most owners spend somewhere between £10,000 and £17,000.
UK IPO Application Fees
The UK IPO charges three core fees during the application process: a filing fee, a search fee, and an examination fee. Under the schedule that ran from 2018 through March 2026, electronic filings cost £60 to apply, £150 for search, and £100 for examination, adding up to £310 for the standard path. Paper filings were more expensive at every stage (£90, £180, and £130 respectively).
From 1 April 2026 the UK IPO raised patent fees by an average of 25%, so the figures above have gone up.1Intellectual Property Office. New Fees from 1 April 2026 for Designs, Trade Marks and Patents Current amounts sit on the UK IPO’s patent forms and fees page next to the form number for each fee.2Intellectual Property Office. Patent Forms and Fees
Filing electronically is cheaper on every fee and moves faster. There is no separate grant or publication fee when the patent is finally approved.
Extra Claims and Pages
An application covers up to 25 claims and up to 35 pages of description at no extra charge. Beyond those limits, the UK IPO charges per unit. As of April 2026, that is £27 per claim over 25 and £13 per page of description over 35.3WIPO. PCT Applicant’s Guide United Kingdom
The excess adds up quickly. An application with 40 claims and 50 pages would incur £405 for the extra claims plus £195 for the extra pages on top of the standard fees. Tightening claims and description before filing can save several hundred pounds without necessarily narrowing your protection.
Patent Attorney Fees
The official fees are the smaller part of the bill. Most of what you spend goes to a patent attorney, who drafts the specification and handles correspondence with the UK IPO through examination. Hiring one is not legally required, but writing patent claims is a specialist skill, and weakly drafted claims can leave your invention exposed after grant.
Drafting the initial specification, meaning the description and the claims that define your monopoly, typically costs £3,000 to £6,000. Simpler software or electronics cases sit near the bottom of that range; complex pharmaceutical or engineering inventions sit at the top or beyond. This is where the value is: claims drafted badly at this stage cannot be rescued by prosecution work later.
Examination almost always produces objections that need a formal reply. Each response costs roughly £500 to £1,500 in attorney time, and most applications go through at least two rounds. Hourly rates in this field commonly exceed £300, though fixed fees are available for routine responses. Total attorney costs from first draft to grant usually land between £5,000 and £10,000, driven by how many objections the examiner raises and how technically dense the invention is.
Annual Renewal Fees
A UK patent can last up to 20 years from its filing date, but only if you pay a renewal fee every year starting from the fourth anniversary.4Intellectual Property Office. Manual of Patent Practice – Section 25 Term of Patent The fees start small and climb steeply. Under the schedule in effect through March 2026 the amounts were:5Intellectual Property Office. Patents (Fees) Rules 2007 (as Amended)
- 4th anniversary: £70
- 5th anniversary: £90
- 6th anniversary: £110
- 7th anniversary: £130
- 8th anniversary: £150
- 9th anniversary: £170
- 10th anniversary: £190
- 11th anniversary: £220
- 12th anniversary: £260
- 13th anniversary: £300
- 14th anniversary: £360
- 15th anniversary: £420
- 16th anniversary: £470
- 17th anniversary: £520
- 18th anniversary: £570
- 19th anniversary: £610
Renewal fees also rose from 1 April 2026 as part of the wider UK IPO increase, so check the current schedule for exact figures.2Intellectual Property Office. Patent Forms and Fees Holding a patent for the full 20 years came to roughly £5,170 in renewal fees under the pre-2026 schedule and is now higher. Many owners let their patents lapse before year 20 once the commercial return no longer justifies fees climbing above £400 a year.
What Happens If You Miss a Renewal
Missing a renewal deadline is not immediately fatal, but it gets expensive. The UK IPO gives a six-month grace period after each renewal date during which you can still pay, with a late surcharge that accrues monthly. Before April 2026 the surcharge was about £24 per month, and grace-period surcharges have since gone up by roughly 33%.
Miss the grace period entirely and the patent lapses. You then have 13 months from the end of that grace period to apply for restoration, and you must show the failure to pay was unintentional; restoration is not guaranteed and carries its own fees.6Intellectual Property Office. Manual of Patent Practice – Section 28 Restoration of Lapsed Patents Diary reminders or a renewal service are far cheaper than sorting this out after the fact.
Optional Services That Affect Cost
A combined search and examination lets you pay for both stages up front and have them performed together, compressing the timeline. The fee is higher than search alone but lower than paying for each stage separately.2Intellectual Property Office. Patent Forms and Fees
The UK IPO’s formal opinion service gives you a non-binding examiner view on validity or infringement, and is considerably cheaper than litigation for settling disputes or informing licensing talks. If your invention relates to environmental technology, the Green Channel accelerates processing at no extra charge; you request it when filing. Certified copies of patent documents, often needed for international filings, are charged per document.
Full Lifetime Cost
Putting the pieces together for a straightforward invention taken through to grant with professional help:
- Official application fees (filing, search, examination): roughly £300 to £500, depending on filing method and post-April-2026 rates
- Excess claims or pages: nothing if you stay within limits, potentially several hundred pounds for broader applications
- Attorney fees through to grant: £5,000 to £10,000
- Renewal fees across the full 20-year term: roughly £5,000 to £6,500
The lifetime cost of a single UK patent, from filing through 20 years of renewals, realistically sits between £10,000 and £17,000 for most inventions. Complex technologies with drawn-out prosecution push the upper end higher. Budget the application and the first few renewal years up front, and treat the later renewals as an annual decision about whether the patent still earns its keep.