The costs of patenting in Mexico

Many researchers and scholars do not know that the total costs to obtain a patent are considerable and that the implementation of a logistics system and specific management to carry out the process successfully is required. The aim of this paper is to show, through empirical evidence, that patenting costs are considerable. The methodology is the analysis of selected and representative cases of the total costs over the project routes, incurred by an R&D Center of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), during the processes performed to obtain patents for some academic inventions. The findings are that the costs that were incurred to obtain two national patents were quite significant, but much more in the case of patent applications abroad, either by direct application or through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

We also found that the process time takes an average of three to six years, depending on the type of patent application. Finally, the costs shown could be considered as reference costs for budget preparation. Nevertheless, the process does not guarantee obtaining patent titles in all cases.