A patent is not a reward for good science. It is a business decision with running costs, and only one of three ways to protect an invention.
For many researchers, a patent is the natural next step after a good result, a kind of trophy that proves the work has a value. This is a misleading view. A patent costs money to obtain and more to maintain, and it only has value if someone will pay to use it or if it blocks a competitor. Most academic patents are never licensed and lapse unused. The decision to patent should follow a commercial rationale, not automatically from the fact of publication.
A patent as a running cost - the real numbers
The filing itself is cheap. The real cost is professional drafting, multi-year prosecution and escalating maintenance fees across 20 years, paid separately in each country. Below are orders of magnitude for the Polish and European routes (as of 2026).
| Stage | Order of magnitude | Notes |
| National filing (UPRP) | 500 PLN (e-filing) | Official fee only. 550 PLN on paper. |
| Full national procedure with an attorney | approx. 11,000 PLN net | About 2 years to decision on average. |
| Maintenance fees (Poland) | from 480 PLN (yrs 1–3) to 2,050 PLN (yr 20) | Rise every year. The office sends no reminders. |
| European patent (a number of countries) | from approx. 10,000 EUR | Not counting later annual fees. |
| Validation per country | 2,500-15,000 PLN | The largest burden of European protection |
| International PCT application | base fee approx. 1,330 CHF | Defers the market decision by 30 months. |
Note: an individual who shows they cannot bear the full fee can obtain a reduction of up to 80% (art. 226 of the Industrial Property Law) though not for fees beyond the 10th year of protection.
Three ways to protect an invention
Patenting is not the only option; it is one of three. A patent means disclosing your invention to the world in exchange for time-limited exclusivity. For some inventions, something else is stronger and cheaper.
| Option | What it is | When it is best |
| Patent | Disclosure of the invention in exchange for 20 years of exclusivity - territorial and paid. | When the solution can be reverse engineered from the product and the market justifies the cost. |
| Trade secret | Keeping the solution confidential, with no disclosure and no expiry date. | When the invention cannot easily be reverse engineered (a manufacturing process, a formulation). |
| Defensive publication | Deliberate disclosure so that no one else can patent it. | When you do not plan to commercialize but want to preserve freedom to operate. |
Briefly on claims:
A patent protects what the claims describe, not the invention itself. Weak or narrowly drafted claims produce a patent that looks impressive on a CV but that a competitor designs around easily and that is commercially worthless. Claim quality is the patent attorney’s craft, not the scientist’s, and it decides whether the patent is an asset or a decoration.
The key principle
Before you file, ask the business question, not the scientific one: who will pay to use this invention, or whom will it block, and does the value of that exclusivity exceed the cost of maintaining it for years? If the answer is not clear, a patent may not be the right tool. A Technology Transfer Centre (see entry “C”) will help weigh that calculation before you commit to a costly, multi-year procedure.
Cost figures based on publicly available information as of 2026: Polish Patent Office (uprp.gov.pl), patent law firms (AOMB, 2025–2026 data), European Patent Office (EPO). Figures are indicative — always verify current fees with UPRP and EPO and agree attorney costs individually.
