Which Indian States Actually Reimburse Your Patent Fees? Payment Triggers, Claim Windows and Expired Schemes

On this page

• Quick answer
• The three questions that decide whether you get paid
• Scheme-by-scheme table
• Gujarat: five schemes, two of them still live
• Telangana: the closed window with an open button
• Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala
• Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh
• Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab and Haryana
• The central schemes, and SIPP's quiet end
• A worked example
• How to file so the claim survives
• How MYCrave can help
• Plan for the grant, not the filing
• Frequently asked questions

A founder files a patent in 2021 expecting ₹2 lakh back from the state. The scheme pays only when the patent is granted. The grant comes in 2025. By then the policy has lapsed, and the portal that still says "Apply Now" leads nowhere.

That story is not unusual. Patent fee reimbursement in India is real money, but the headline figure is the least useful thing to know about any scheme. Whether you are paid depends on what triggers the payment, how long you have to claim it, and whether the scheme is still alive on the day you do.

This guide goes through the main state and central schemes on exactly those three points, as they stood on 24 September 2026.

Quick answer

Several states still reimburse part of your patent costs, but most pay only after grant, many impose a claim deadline measured from grant, and several well-known schemes have expired. Live routes at the time of review include Tamil Nadu's MSME scheme, Maharashtra's 2025 startup policy, Telangana's MSME policy, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Kerala, plus the central MSME Innovative scheme. The central SIPP scheme for startups ended on 31 March 2026.

The three questions that decide whether you get paid

1. What triggers the payment? Filing, publication or grant. Most schemes pay on grant, which in India typically comes years after filing. A few pay in stages. Some pay nothing until you hold the certificate.

2. How long do you have to claim? Tamil Nadu gives six months from grant. Odisha gives two years. Haryana gave three months. Many policies say nothing at all, which leaves the deadline to operational guidelines you have to hunt for.

3. Is the scheme live when the trigger happens? This is the one that catches people. Telangana's startup scheme required both filing and grant inside its five-year window. If your patent was granted a month after the window closed, you had no claim, however early you filed.

A fourth question sits behind all three: does the scheme reimburse what you actually paid for? Some cover government fees and attorney fees. Andhra Pradesh says only patent filing fees. Nearly all exclude renewal fees.

Scheme-by-scheme table

Status is as checked on 24 September 2026. "Not stated" means the policy text we could read does not specify it, so the operational guidelines or the nodal office decide.

Gujarat: five schemes, two of them still live

Gujarat is where most confusion starts, because the Industries Commissionerate's website still displays its 2015 patent scheme with no expiry notice. That scheme ran from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2019. It was generous and well designed: 75% up to ₹25 lakh, half paid on publication and half on grant, with a claim to be made within 12 months of publication. It is closed.

Its successor sat inside the MSME scheme of the Gujarat Industrial Policy 2020, again at 75% up to ₹25 lakh per applicant, with attorney fees capped at ₹50,000 for a domestic patent and ₹2 lakh per country abroad. That policy's operative period ended on 6 August 2025. If you filed during the policy period and are waiting on grant, ask the Commissionerate in writing whether your claim will be entertained. Don't assume.

What is live:

• SSIP 2.0, the student startup and innovation policy, runs to 31 March 2027. Students up to 35 can get up to ₹75,000 for an Indian patent and ₹1.5 lakh per international application, routed through their institution's SSIP committee. Support follows the stage of the application. International filings need the committee's approval in advance.
• The Viksit Gujarat Industrial Policy 2026, effective 1 June 2026, reportedly offers 75% up to ₹15 lakh per patent for up to 25 patents. As summarised publicly, that sits under support for large R&D centres, not ordinary MSMEs. The scheme rules had not been confirmed at review.
• The Aatmanirbhar Gujarat MSME scheme (valid to 4 October 2027) is listed by some sources as including patent assistance. We could not confirm the terms from the resolution itself, so check with the District Industries Centre before relying on it.

Telangana: the closed window with an open button

Telangana's startup patent scheme under GO No. 10 reimbursed 100% of patent costs, up to ₹2 lakh for an Indian patent and ₹10 lakh for a foreign one. The state's own page is clear about the catch: only patents "filed and granted during the validity of the GO No 10 i.e 25-07-2017 – 25-07-2022" qualify, and claims had to be made within six months of grant.

Do the arithmetic. Any valid claim had to be made by early 2023 at the latest. Yet the page still carries an "Apply Now" link, and at least one 2026 compliance guide still lists the scheme as active. It isn't.

The live Telangana route is different and narrower. The Telangana MSME Policy 2024 (G.O.Ms.No.16, 18 September 2024) offers a 100% subsidy on patent registration expenses up to ₹2 lakh under T-IDEA, and up to ₹3 lakh for SC/ST-owned MSMEs under T-PRIDE. It is for MSMEs, not startups as such, and the operational terms (trigger, deadline, foreign patents) were not published in a form we could verify.

Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala

Maharashtra replaced its 2018 startup policy with the Maharashtra Startup, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy 2025. Section 13.4 reimburses DPIIT-recognised Maharashtra startups for granted patents, designs, trade marks and copyrights, up to ₹5 lakh per startup for domestic IP and ₹20 lakh for international. Note "granted": nothing is paid at filing. The policy text does not state a percentage or a claim deadline.

Karnataka's 2022-27 startup policy offered ₹2 lakh per Indian patent and up to ₹10 lakh for a foreign patent, with foreign support split 75% after filing and 25% after grant. A new Karnataka Startup Policy 2025-30 was unveiled in November 2025, and its text was not publicly readable when we checked. Several sites assume the old figures carried over. That may be right, but confirm with the Karnataka Startup Cell before you plan around it.

Kerala Startup Mission offers up to ₹2 lakh for Indian patents and ₹10 lakh for international patents per startup, released in three stages across filing, prosecution and grant. It covers government and attorney fees, and excludes renewals, appeals and expedited examination. It is one of the few schemes that pays before grant, which matters a great deal for cash flow.

Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh

Tamil Nadu's MSME Policy 2021 is the clearest scheme in the country. It covers 75% of the cost of the patent application, capped at ₹3 lakh per patent registered, and it is open to individuals, institutions, MSMEs and startups. The trigger is grant, and the deadline is written into the policy: claim within six months of receiving the patent. Claims go through the District Industries Centre. Put that six months in your diary on the day the grant is recorded.

Andhra Pradesh's Innovation and Startup Policy 4.0 (G.O.Ms.No.9, 28 April 2025) reimburses 50% of patent expenses, up to ₹2 lakh for an Indian patent and ₹10 lakh for a foreign one. Two limits matter: "only patent filing fees will be reimbursed", and a patent certificate is a required document, so in practice you claim after grant.

Madhya Pradesh offers up to ₹5 lakh towards obtaining a patent for DPIIT-recognised startups established in the state. The trigger is grant. The policy doesn't split domestic and foreign, and doesn't state a deadline.

Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab and Haryana

Uttar Pradesh's 2020 startup policy reimbursed the cost of successful patents (₹2 lakh Indian, ₹10 lakh international) for incubated startups, but it was valid for five years from 2020 and has run its course. Its portal still shows "Apply Now". A new UP Startup Policy 2026 was approved in July 2026 and launched at the end of August; early reports mention reimbursement for patent filing and quality certification, but we have not seen the notified clause. Wait for the text.

Odisha's MSME Development Policy 2022 reimburses 100% of patent and IP registration costs, up to ₹5 lakh, for India and abroad. Its operational guidelines of 26 September 2025 give the most forgiving window we found: two years from registration, or from the date of the guidelines, whichever is later.

Punjab's Industrial and Business Development Policy 2022, valid to October 2027, includes patent reimbursement with its own claim form. The figures reported publicly are 75% up to ₹10 lakh domestic and ₹20 lakh international; the trigger and deadline need confirming from the operational guidelines.

Haryana's patent registration scheme was one of the most generous, at 100% up to ₹25 lakh, but it had a hard edge: claim within three months of registration. It expired on 31 December 2025, and no replacement patent clause was visible in the state's 2026 MSME policy summaries.

The central schemes, and SIPP's quiet end

SIPP, the Scheme for Facilitating Start-ups Intellectual Property Protection, never reimbursed startups directly. The government paid empanelled facilitators a fixed fee per stage (₹15,000 at filing and ₹25,000 at disposal for a patent, more if opposed), so startups got professional help at no professional cost and paid only the reduced official fees. The modified scheme ran for three years from 1 April 2023, which means it ended on 31 March 2026. At review, no extension or successor had been notified. If a facilitator is still offering you "free SIPP filing", ask on what basis.

The startup rebate on official fees is a separate thing and continues. A DPIIT-recognised startup still pays the reduced government fee column. Our guide to the DPIIT patent fee rebate covers that in detail.

The MSME Innovative scheme (Ministry of MSME) reimburses 100% of the actual cost of a granted patent, including government and attorney fees and prior-art search, up to ₹1 lakh for a domestic patent and ₹5 lakh for a foreign one. It excludes renewals and requires Udyam registration and a declaration that no other government funding has been taken for the same IP. That last condition matters if you are also claiming from a state.

A worked example

A hypothetical illustration, not a MYCrave client matter.

A Coimbatore MSME files an Indian patent in March 2023: a 42-page specification with 14 claims. At the small entity rate it pays ₹8,800 in official fees for filing and the request for examination, plus ₹1.6 lakh in professional fees for search, drafting and prosecution. The patent is granted and recorded on 10 June 2026.

Under the Tamil Nadu MSME scheme, if the District Industries Centre accepts professional fees as part of the cost, 75% of ₹1,68,800 is about ₹1.27 lakh, inside the ₹3 lakh cap. If it reads "cost of filing" as official fees only, the figure falls to ₹6,600. Ask which reading your DIC applies before you file. Either way, the claim must reach the DIC by 10 December 2026.

Now suppose the same company also applies under the central MSME Innovative scheme. It would have to declare no other government funding for the same patent. It should pick one, and in this example the state scheme is the better fit because it has a clear window and a higher cap per patent.

The lesson is the six-month clock. A company that treats the grant certificate as the end of the project will miss it.

How to file so the claim survives

• File in the eligible entity's name. A scheme for Maharashtra startups will not pay a founder who filed personally. Get assignments right before filing.
• Keep fee evidence split. Government fee receipts, professional fee invoices and GST shown separately. Some schemes pay only filing fees; all will ask.
• Diary the claim window from the trigger date, not from filing. Grant is recorded online; don't wait for the paper.
• Check status twice: when you file, and again when you claim. Ask the nodal office in writing if a policy lapses mid-way.
• Don't double-claim. Central and state schemes often require a declaration that no other public funding covers the same IP.
• Treat "Apply Now" as a link, not a promise. Read the policy period on the scheme document itself.

How MYCrave can help

MYCrave Consultancy & Services handles patent filing and prosecution through a Registered Patent Agent, and a reimbursement is only as good as the paperwork behind it. On a file where you expect a state or central claim, that means:

• A scheme check before filing: which scheme you likely qualify for, in which entity's name, and what it pays on.
• Claim-ready documentation: fee receipts and invoices split the way nodal offices ask for them.
• A reimbursement docket: the trigger date and the claim deadline tracked alongside your prosecution deadlines.
• An honest view when a scheme has lapsed, including whether a written request to the department is worth making.

Plan for the grant, not the filing

The money in these schemes arrives late, if at all, and only to applicants who planned for it at filing. Choose the scheme before you file, put the claim deadline in the same calendar as your examination deadlines, and check the scheme's status again on the day you claim.

Frequently asked questions

About this guide

Written byDhruv Brahmbhatt Managing Director, MYCrave Consultancy & Services

Reviewed byPooja Menon Registered Patent Agent (Reg. No. 5509)

JurisdictionIndia (state and central schemes)

Last reviewed24 September 2026

Sources

• Gujarat Industries Commissionerate scheme page and GR SSI-102014-924840-CH (19 January 2015)
• SSIP 2.0 policy and IPR guidelines
• Telangana Startup funding and incentives page
• Telangana MSME Policy 2024, G.O.Ms.No.16
• Maharashtra Startup, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy 2025
• Karnataka Startup Policy 2022-27
• KSUM patent support page
• Tamil Nadu MSME Policy 2021
• Andhra Pradesh G.O.Ms.No.9 (28 April 2025)
• MP Startup portal
• UP StartinUP patent support page and Startup Policy 2020
• Haryana notification 25/05/2020-4IB-I
• IP India SIPP page and modified scheme notification
• MSME Innovative Scheme guidelines

Secondary sources are used only where noted in the text.

Scheme status changes without notice. Every row reflects what we could confirm on the review date. Confirm with the nodal office before you rely on any figure or deadline.

General information, not legal or financial advice. Reading this guide does not create a professional relationship with MYCrave, and nothing here guarantees that any claim will be paid.

Corrections: write to info@mycrave.co.in. If you run one of these schemes and a row is out of date, we would like to hear from you.

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