International patent cost: why territories multiply the bill

A UK patent stops at the UK border

Gov.uk is explicit: a UK patent does not give you protection in other countries, which means that unless you get patent protection in a country, anyone can legally make, use or sell your invention there. To protect the invention abroad you can apply through the European Patent Office or the World Intellectual Property Organisation, and you can obtain a patent covering the UK at the same time (gov.uk).

Why cost multiplies rather than adds

• Each territory has its own official fees, set by its own office and payable in its own currency.
• Each territory usually needs a local representative, who charges their own professional fee on top of your UK attorney's coordination time.
• Translation is required in many jurisdictions, and it is technical translation, priced accordingly.
• Each territory prosecutes separately, so an objection raised in one office does not resolve the equivalent objection in another.
• Renewals recur annually in each territory for the life of the patent, which is the cost most applicants underestimate at the outset.

What the international route buys you

An international application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty does not grant an international patent, because no such thing exists. What it does is buy time and information: a single application preserves the position in many countries while you find out more about the invention's commercial prospects and about the prior art, before committing to the expensive national phase filings. For a startup deciding whether an invention justifies protection in several markets, that deferral is often worth more than the fee it costs.

How to stage the decisions

1. Establish the markets that matter commercially, not the ones that sound impressive. Protection you will not enforce is an annual expense with no return.
2. Ask the attorney to map the decision points, with the date each commitment falls due and what it costs at that date.
3. Treat the search result as information you paid for and use it. An unfavourable search is a reason to narrow the territorial plan rather than to press on.
4. Budget the renewals across the whole term, in every territory, before committing to the territories.
5. Revisit the plan annually. Dropping territories that have not produced commercial value is a legitimate and common decision.

The IPO publishes fee sheets for Patent Cooperation Treaty applications made through it as part of its Patent forms and fees publication, which was updated on 1 April 2026 (gov.uk). Fees payable to other patent offices are set by those offices, not by the IPO, and are not reproduced here.