When should a startup file its first patent?

The trigger is technical maturity, not product maturity

Founders usually wait for the product to feel finished. Patent law does not care whether the product is finished; it cares whether the invention can be described well enough to be performed. Those two moments are often a year apart, and the earlier one is the right one.

The hard constraint is disclosure. India has no general grace period, so a demo, a launch, a campaign page or a pitch that enables the invention is prior art against your own application. If a public event is scheduled, the filing has to be before it - an imperfect filing beats an unrecoverable disclosure.

Cost is less of a barrier than founders assume

Indian official fees are substantially reduced for natural persons, startups, small entities and educational institutions - often around a fifth of the standard rate. Expedited examination under rule 24C is open to several of the same categories, and can remove years from the timeline.

The real cost is drafting quality, and that is where the money should go. A cheap filing with a claim 1 that describes your product is an asset that costs money every year and protects nothing.

What to actually do

• File before any public event, even if the draft is not perfect.
• Use the concessional fee category you qualify for, and check expedited examination.
• Spend on drafting, not on volume.
• Get inventor assignments signed at filing, not at the funding round.