File patent with 80% discount

Apply for a patent in 7 steps

We support you on the way to a patent. Due to our phased approach, you only bear a low cost risk and remain in control of the process:

Step 1: Free initial consultation

We will discuss your invention in an approximately 30-minute conversation. We also provide an assessment as to whether your invention is fundamentally suitable for patenting.

Step 2: Analysis of the invention and cursory search

If the initial discussion suggests a continuation and you want to work with us, we will analyze your invention in more depth. For this step we charge a fee of 500 euros plus VAT. We will let you know what information we may need from you and work out the basic details of your invention which we use as the subject of a cursory search. We review the identified prior art documents that could possibly conflict with your invention.

In the event that the prior art documents identified in our cursory search leaves no room for your invention, the process ends at this step and no further costs are incurred.

In the positive case, in the course of the cursory search, we develop a hierarchy of features with which your invention stands out from the prior art. We refine these features together with you so that you have a structured brief description of your invention.

Step 3: Apply for a Patent.Scheck from the FFG

After we have estimated the likelihood of success of your invention and described the invention appropriately, it is now time to apply for the Patent.Scheck. We are at your side and advise you to ensure that you meet the requirements for the FFG funding in order to avoid a rejection of your funding application.

If the FFG has approved the application for funding, a first installment of 1,300 euros will be paid out, with which phase 1 of the Patent.Scheck is initiated.

Step 4: Customized search in the Austrian Patent Office

As soon as the funding contract is in place, you need to contact the Austrian Patent Office to request the customized search. The use of customized search is a requirement for funding. The Austrian Patent Office charges costs of 1,710 euros for this service, so that only 410 euros actually have to be paid on the basis of the 1,300 euros that have already been paid out.

Why did we previously carry out a cursory search in step 2, when the Austrian Patent Office carries out an extensive search anyway – based on the regular price of 1,710 euros?

The search of the Austrian Patent Office is a valuable resource that should only be used with a meaningful description of the subject-matter of the invention. Although the customized search is interactive and the invention is discussed in an initial meeting, the actual search takes place in a subsequent process in which the inventor can no longer exert any influence. For this reason, it is very important to assess in advance which partial aspects of the invention are already known and to what extent. This knowledge helps to sharpen the invention accordingly, to think about promising partial aspects and to describe them in more detail. This opens up the possibility for the patent office to cover much more in the search than would be possible without a cursory search. If this thorough preparation is not carried out, the Austrian Patent Office can limit its search only to the information provided. The result is a less meaningful search, which can lead to your invention not being deemed to have sufficient prospects of success, even if further specification of your invention could still reveal new and inventive features that were not disclosed to the patent office. Finally, after the customized search has been carried out, there is only one final conversation to discuss the results of the customized search.

The result of the search is the pivotal point as to whether the Patent.Scheck can be transferred to phase 2, which is now about the preparation of a patent application based on the search results, or whether the process ends here due to insufficient prospects of success.

Step 5: Prepare the patent application

The result of the research was sufficiently positive. We are now preparing a patent application and will request further information and sketches. In the course of preparing the patent application, there are usually questions to further detail individual aspects of your invention. Experience has shown that you will also come up with further advantageous developments of your invention, which we will include in the patent application. After completing the drafting phase, a patent application is available, which can be filed with a patent office.

Step 6: File the patent application

The Patent.Scheck promotes the filing of your patent application to a national patent office, which the European Patent Office expressly excludes. The choice of patent office is essential as patent protection is only granted nationally. As a rule, filing with the Austrian Patent Office will make sense (“first application”). Even if protection is desired in other countries, the present patent application can also be filed with other patent offices within one year (“subsequent application”), and the priority (“priority”) of the first application can be claimed for the subsequent application. Claiming priority means that a subsequent application filed up to one year later is treated in other countries as if the subsequent application had been filed together on the day of the first filing.

If it is clear to you that you need protection in several countries, you can also use the Patent.Scheck to submit an international patent application to the Austrian Patent Office. With this procedure, you get the greatest possible benefit from the Patent.Scheck, since the official fees for an international patent application are many times the official fees for a national patent application and you receive a non-refundable grant also for these much higher costs. The Austrian Patent Office forwards the international patent application to the European Patent Office, which carries out the international search. If the result of the search by the European Patent Office is positive, the international patent application must be continued in so-called national phases, because this is the only way to obtain patent protection in selected countries. The national phases are not covered by the Patent.Scheck.

Step 7: Settle the Patent.Scheck

After submitting the documents to the FFG and a positive check, up to 8,700 euros will be paid out in a second installment. Together with the first installment of 1,300 euros, the maximum reimbursement is 10,000 euros.