How to Choose an IPR Consultancy in India: 12 Questions to Ask Before You Hire Anyone

Search for "best IPR consultancy India" and you get pages of firms, each with five-star reviews and a promise faster than the last. Picture a founder in Surat holding three quotes for the same trademark at three very different prices, with no way to tell value from a sales pitch.

Rankings won't help here, and this guide doesn't offer one. What helps is knowing who the law allows to file for you, how to check that person on IP India's own register in minutes, and which questions separate a careful professional from a sales desk. Use the checklist below with any firm you are considering, including us.

Quick answer

There is no official ranking of IP firms in India, so judge the person handling your file, not the brand. For patents, only a registered patent agent may draft and file on your behalf, and no company may practise as a patent agent (Patents Act, 1970, sections 125 to 129). For trademarks, an advocate or a registered trade marks agent may act (Trade Marks Act, 1999, section 145). Check the registration number on IP India's Electronic Register of Patent Agents, insist on a written quote that separates government fees from professional fees, ask for the application number and filing receipt on the day of filing, and walk away from anyone who guarantees a grant.

Who is legally allowed to act for you

Who may represent you depends on the right involved.

Patents

Patent work is a closed profession. The Controller keeps a register of patent agents (section 125). To be entered, a person must be an Indian citizen aged 21 or more with a degree in science, engineering or technology who has passed the patent agent examination or served ten years as an examiner or Controller (section 126). Registered agents may practise before the Controller and handle your proceedings (section 127).

Section 129 is the one to remember. No one may practise, or hold themselves out, as a patent agent unless registered, and no company or other body corporate may practise or describe itself as a patent agent at all. "Practise" covers applying for patents, preparing specifications, and advising on validity or infringement beyond scientific or technical points. Since 1 August 2024, breaching section 129 attracts a penalty of up to ₹5 lakh, plus ₹1,000 a day for a continuing default (section 123, as amended by the Jan Vishwas Act, 2023).

Two savings apply under section 132: you may draft and file your own application, and an advocate who is not a patent agent may take part in a hearing before the Controller. In practice, whatever the firm's structure, the person who drafts, signs and files for you must be an individual registered patent agent, authorised by you in Form 26 (rule 135, Patents Rules, 2003).

Trademarks, designs and copyright

Under section 145 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999, a legal practitioner, a registered trade marks agent or a person in your sole and regular employment may act for you before the Registrar, authorised in Form TM-M (rule 19, Trade Marks Rules, 2017). For designs, section 43 of the Designs Act, 2000 allows a legal practitioner or a registered patent agent. Copyright has no register of agents: the applicant must sign the application (rule 70(3), Copyright Rules, 2013), though a professional can prepare and file it under a power of attorney.

How to check a professional in five minutes

You don't need to take anyone's word for their credentials.

1. Ask for a name and a number. Get the full name and registration number of the person who will sign your filing. Patent agent numbers take the form IN/PA followed by digits.
2. Search the register. Open IP India's Electronic Register of Patent Agents and search by agent number, name or city. Each entry shows the agent's name, city and the year up to which the registration has been continued. It also lists agents removed or in default of the annual fee (rule 115).
3. For trademarks, ask which route applies. An advocate should give you a Bar Council enrolment number; a trade marks agent should show a registration certificate. IP India's Trade Marks Agents list helps, but the latest copy on its site when we checked was dated 31 October 2022, so recent registrations won't appear.
4. Startups have one more list. IP India's list of "IP Mitras" (patent facilitators) under its Startups Intellectual Property Protection (SIPP) scheme shows each facilitator's agent number and specialisation.
5. Check the filing yourself afterwards. Trademark applications appear on the Trade Marks eRegister, designs on Design Application Status, and copyright applications on the status page at copyright.gov.in. Patent details become public once the application is published, through Application Status on IP India's patent search.

If the name, number or applicant details don't match what you were told, stop and ask why before paying more.

Twelve questions to ask before you hire

Ask these in your first meeting, and get the important answers in writing. A good professional won't mind.

Who will do the work

1. Who will draft and sign my application, and what is their registration number? Not "our team". A name you can check on the register.

2. What is their technical background in my field? A patent specification is a technical document in legal form. A mechanical engineer drafting a pharmaceutical formulation is a risk you should know about.

3. How many filings like mine have they handled? Ask about the type of work, such as college provisionals or food-brand trademarks, not client names.

What you are paying for

4. Will you search before filing, and give me the result in writing? A search costs a little now and can save a refused application later. If they want to skip it, ask why.

5. Can I have a written quote that separates government fees from professional fees? Government fees are fixed in the rules. For a patent application e-filed by an individual, startup, small entity or educational institution, the filing fee is ₹1,600 and the request for examination ₹4,000; other applicants pay ₹8,000 and ₹20,000. A trademark application costs ₹4,500 per class for individuals, startups and small enterprises filing online, and ₹9,000 for others. Our patent cost guide breaks down the rest.

6. What exactly is included? Drafting, filing, the complete specification, the request for examination, the reply to the First Examination Report (FER) or a trademark objection, hearings, renewals. Most disputes between clients and firms start with an assumption about this line.

Deadlines, documents and control

7. What are the statutory deadlines on my file? A good answer is in statutory steps, not promises: the complete specification within 12 months of a provisional (section 9), publication 18 months from the priority date, the request for examination within 31 months, and six months to answer the FER, extendable by three. For trademarks, the Registry may treat an application as abandoned if an examination report is not answered within one month.

8. Whose address and email go on the application, and when will I get the application number and receipt? Once you authorise an agent, the office sends its communications to that agent (rule 135, Patents Rules; rule 19, Trade Marks Rules). That is normal, but you then depend on them forwarding everything. Online filing produces the application number and fee receipt on the day of filing, so ask for both that day, and check that the applicant is you or your institution, never the firm.

9. Who owns the drafts and the file? You should be able to get the complete file at any time: the search report, drafts, filed copies and every office communication.

Trust and continuity

10. How do you handle confidentiality and conflicts? Sign a confidentiality agreement before you disclose the invention, and ask whether they act for anyone in the same technology or brand space.

11. How will you communicate, and who do I escalate to? A named contact, a response time for routine queries, and someone senior to call if a deadline is at risk.

12. What happens if you stop working on my matter, or I want to move? Moving a patent file means filing a fresh Form 26 for the new agent; for trademarks, a fresh Form TM-M. The firm should hand over the complete file without conditions.

The checklist: good answers and red-flag answers

Keep this open on your phone during the meeting.

Red flags that should end the conversation

• A guarantee of grant or registration. Nobody controls the examiner or an opponent.
• "Patent in 24 hours." An application number can be generated the day you file. A patent cannot: no patent may be granted until at least six months after the application is published (rule 55(1A), Patents Rules), and only after examination.
• An "international patent" for a few thousand rupees. There is no such thing; patents are granted country by country. Many such offers are cheap foreign design registrations, as our guide on fake patents and research integrity explains.
• A price below the government fee. An "all-inclusive patent" for ₹4,999 cannot cover the ₹1,600 filing fee and ₹4,000 examination request that even an individual pays, let alone the drafting. A ₹2,999 trademark "registration" is below the ₹4,500 official fee.
• No named registered professional, or a company describing itself as a patent agent, which section 129(2) does not allow.
• Pressure tactics: "offer ends today", invented deadlines, or warnings that someone will steal your idea this week.
• Refusing to share the filing receipt, the application number or a copy of what was filed.
• The firm named as applicant. The agent's address for service is normal. The applicant must be you or your organisation.

A useful yardstick: the draft code for patent agents

In November 2025 the government published draft amendments to the Patents Rules (G.S.R. 814(E)) proposing a Code of Conduct for Patent Agents. The draft would require a letter of engagement setting out the scope of service, copies of all Patent Office communications to the client, confidentiality and disclosure of conflicts. It would bar "false promises or assurances regarding the grant", exaggerated success-rate claims, coercive tactics such as exaggerating deadlines, and unreasonably withholding a client's files.

Check IP India for whether it has been finalised; either way, it describes what a careful professional should already be doing. Separately, anyone can complain to the Patent Office's adjudicating officer about practice by an unregistered person (section 124A and rule 107B).

Worked example: three quotes for one provisional patent

Dr Kavita Shah teaches electronics at an engineering college near Anand. She has built a low-cost soil-moisture controller for drip irrigation and wants a provisional on file before presenting it at a conference. Her college will be the applicant. Three quotes arrive (the figures are illustrative):

• Quote A: ₹4,999 "all-inclusive", with "patent in 24 hours and international protection". No agent named.
• Quote B: ₹18,000 professional fee for a search and drafting, plus the ₹1,600 government fee shown separately. A named agent with an IN/PA number. The complete specification and examination request are quoted as later stages.
• Quote C: ₹9,500 plus government fee. A named, registered agent with a mechanical engineering background. No search. The FER reply is "charged as applicable".

Here is how she works through them:

1. She drops A at once. "International protection" at that price is impossible, ₹4,999 does not even cover the government fees to examination, and there is no agent to check.
2. She looks up B's and C's agents on the register. Both appear, with registrations continued to a future year.
3. C won't search or fix a price for the FER reply, and its agent's background doesn't match an electronics invention.
4. She asks B and C for the full cost to the end of examination: the provisional, the complete specification within 12 months, and the request for examination, where the college pays the same ₹4,000 government fee as an individual.

She chooses B. It wasn't the cheapest first figure, but it was the one quote she could check line by line, with a search and a matching technical background. Had C offered a search and a fixed reply price, it might have been the better choice. The cheapest line on a quote is rarely the cheapest patent.

How MYCrave can help

We would rather you check us than take our word for anything.

• Ask us all twelve questions. Ask who would handle your matter and for their registration number, ask for a quote that splits government and professional fees, and ask for the statutory steps in writing. Here is how to prepare.
• Check our people. Every guide in this Knowledge Bank names its reviewer on the byline, and our experts page lists the team. You can look up our reviewer, Pooja Menon (IN/PA 5509), on IP India's register yourself.
• Patent filings from search and drafting to examination replies and hearings, signed by a registered patent agent.
• Trademark filings in your name, starting with a search, so you can follow the status on the eRegister yourself.
• Colleges and universities: MYCrave has completed 22,000+ IPR filings and set up 70+ institutional IP cells, and we are happy to answer these questions for a whole department.

A good firm is happy to be checked

The professionals worth hiring tend to answer these questions before you ask them. They put a name and a number on the work, separate the fees, and send the application number without being chased.

So treat the search results as a starting list, not an answer. Spend ten minutes on IP India's register and twenty minutes in a first meeting with this checklist in hand. That half hour will tell you more than any ranking could.

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading