Plan PCT international-phase fees and 30- or 31-month national-phase cash needs across ten patent offices using actual quotes, translation rates, exchange rates, contingency, and present value.
These presets select offices only. Enter like-for-like quotes for every cost line.
International filing language
The official international filing fee uses sheets, not claims. Claims remain a quote-scope note.
Submission method
Blank means no data. Zero means the quote explicitly states no charge.
The initial contingency, discount, and FX-stress rates are editable planning assumptions, not official rates.
Select an office to compare 30- and 31-month budgets and dates.
| Standard entry date | Stage | Planned cost | Quote status |
|---|---|---|---|
| — | PCT international phase | 495,000 KRW | No data |
This is a planning estimate, not legal-deadline advice, filing strategy, or a binding quote. Confirm dates and costs with qualified counsel and each office.
2026 PCT BUDGET GUIDE
A Patent Cooperation Treaty application does not create one worldwide patent.
It creates an international phase that can preserve options before the applicant enters selected national or regional offices, where examination and grant decisions remain separate.
The first cash requirement usually appears around the 12-month priority deadline and includes the international filing fee, transmittal fee, search fee, and professional fees.
A much larger and more fragmented requirement can appear around month 30 or 31, when official national-phase fees, translations, local counsel, examination requests, and annuities may become due.
This calculator keeps those stages separate and treats every blank private-cost field as missing data rather than a free service.
The model assumes that the applicant files through the Korean receiving Office.
The official international filing fee is CHF 1,330 for an application of up to 30 sheets, plus CHF 15 for every sheet above 30.
A fully electronic application receives the modeled CHF 300 reduction, making the fee CHF 1,030 for a 30-sheet application before conversion to Korean won.
The receiving Office transmittal fee is KRW 45,000.
When the Korean authority performs the international search, the fee is KRW 450,000 for a Korean-language filing or KRW 1,200,000 for an English-language filing.
The international-phase fees are generally due within one month from receipt of the international application, so the actual filing and remittance dates need a separate operating deadline.
| Cost line | Official amount | Planning treatment |
|---|---|---|
| International filing fee | CHF 1,330 up to 30 sheets | Add CHF 15 per excess sheet |
| Fully electronic reduction | CHF 300 | Apply only when the filing method qualifies |
| Transmittal fee | KRW 45,000 | Fixed KRW cost in this model |
| Korean-authority search fee | KRW 450,000 Korean KRW 1,200,000 English | Changes with filing language |
The PCT fee formula uses sheets, not the number of claims.
Claim count still belongs in the quote scope because local counsel, translators, and some national offices may use it when pricing later work.
The ten-extra-sheet sensitivity therefore changes only the CHF filing fee and contingency; it does not guess how many extra translated words the amendment may create.
The CHF amount is official, but the KRW equivalent depends on the payment channel and payment date.
The calculator does not present a cached exchange rate as an official settlement rate.
Enter the rate in the bank quote or counsel budget and refresh it immediately before payment.
A treaty-priority PCT filing is normally planned within 12 months of the first filing.
National or regional entry then follows the time limit for each selected office, most commonly 30 or 31 months from the priority date.
The calculator adds calendar months and clamps a day that does not exist in the target month to that month's last day.
These dates are budget markers, not a docketing opinion.
| Office | Currency | Standard limit |
|---|---|---|
| United States (US) | USD | 30 months |
| European Patent Office (EP) | EUR | 31 months |
| China (CN) | CNY | 30 months |
| Japan (JP) | JPY | 30 months |
| Republic of Korea (KR) | KRW | 31 months |
| Canada (CA) | CAD | 30 months |
| Australia (AU) | AUD | 31 months |
| India (IN) | INR | 31 months |
| Vietnam (VN) | VND | 31 months |
| United Kingdom (GB) | GBP | 31 months |
WIPO does not collect one central national-phase payment for every designated state.
Each national or regional office sets its official fees, timing, reductions, language requirements, and local-representation rules.
Private translation and local-agent fees also vary with claims, sheets, technology, applicant type, tax treatment, urgency, and the work included in the quote.
A broad market average can look authoritative while being wrong for the applicant's file, so the calculator ships no invented country-price defaults.
Blank and zero are intentionally different.
A blank line receives a no-data warning because the cost is unknown.
A zero becomes a known value only when the quote explicitly confirms that no charge is due at the modeled stage.
This distinction prevents a partially completed quote from masquerading as a complete country budget.
Confirm applicant-size reductions, claim or sheet surcharges, examination timing, annuity timing, and payment currency.
Confirm what the base fee includes, whether reporting and translation review are separate, and whether tax is included.
Confirm the source word count, drawings, sequence listings, proofreading, formatting, and rush charges.
Record bank fees, withholding or indirect tax, quote validity, conversion spread, and the remittance deadline.
The translation prompt is a conservative budgeting aid, not a legal-language determination.
For a Korean-language international application, the interface asks for a translation budget when the selected office accepts an English filing, including US, EP, CA, AU, IN, and GB in this simplified planning map.
For an English-language international application entering Korea, it asks for Korean translation inputs.
China, Japan, and Vietnam always open local-language translation inputs because the international filing language does not itself match the modeled national language.
Actual translation requirements, allowable later corrections, document components, and deadlines must be confirmed from the relevant national chapter and local counsel.
| Output | Formula treatment | Decision use |
|---|---|---|
| Nominal subtotal | Known international cost plus known selected-office costs | Unreserved cash currently identified |
| Nominal total | Nominal subtotal multiplied by one plus contingency | Approval-envelope comparison |
| Present-value total | Each staged payment discounted from its planned date to the selected valuation date | Compare options with different timing |
| FX-stress total | Increase only CHF and other foreign-currency conversions, then apply contingency | Set a foreign-currency approval buffer |
| Ten-sheet impact | CHF 150 converted at the entered CHF rate plus contingency | Test drafting expansion before filing |
Present value discounts a payment only when its planned date is later than the valuation date.
A payment already due or earlier than the valuation date receives no negative discount or compounding adjustment.
The present-value figure measures timing, not patent quality, grant probability, market exclusivity, or portfolio value.
Use a patent-value or investment model for those questions rather than treating a lower discounted filing cost as evidence that a jurisdiction is strategically better.
Build one version with US and EP, then another that adds China and Japan.
Compare the incremental 30- or 31-month cash requirement, translation work, and local-agent exposure rather than comparing office fees alone.
The calculator does not recommend the expanded set; commercial evidence and professional advice must support the market decision.
Apply a simultaneous exchange-rate increase to the CHF filing fee and all local-currency quote lines.
KRW transmittal, search, translation, and other fixed-KRW entries remain unchanged.
The difference between the nominal and stressed totals indicates how much approval headroom comes from currency risk rather than new services.
Ten additional sheets add CHF 150 to the official international filing fee.
The sensitivity output includes the entered CHF rate and contingency but does not infer additional translation words.
Increase each translation word count separately when the extra sheets also expand the text sent into national phases.
No. It is an international application process. Protection still depends on timely national or regional entry and the substantive procedures of every office.
The numerical total includes only known inputs, while the no-data checklist identifies the missing quote lines. A visible zero is therefore a known-cost minimum, not proof that national entry is free.
You can enter any planning assumption, but a current like-for-like quote is more defensible. Scope, claims, sheets, technology, tax, and translation review can change the private fee materially.
It compares payment timing using the selected annual discount rate. It does not estimate grant probability, patent strength, infringement risk, or the commercial value of protection.
No. Translation, documents, signatures, review, and remittance need lead time. Use a verified internal deadline comfortably before the office deadline.
Not necessarily. Receiving Office competence, filing language, and authority-specific conditions matter. The foreign-authority amounts are official fee presets, not an eligibility determination.
No. Timing differs by office and case. Keep the field blank until confirmed, or enter zero only when the current quote explicitly says the item is not due in the modeled stage.
The fee model was checked on August 27, 2026 against the Korean intellectual-property authority's schedule effective June 1, 2026 and the WIPO Applicant's Guide for the Republic of Korea applicable from August 1, 2026.
The office time-limit table was also checked on August 27, 2026.
Current Korean legal-source checks covered Patent Act Law ID 001455, MST 279827, including Articles 54, 199, 201, and 203.
The fee-rule check covered the Rules on Collection of Patent Fees and Other Fees, Law ID 008560, MST 283819, including Article 10, effective February 27, 2026.
Fix the priority date, language, sheets, claims, and office mix first.
Then replace each blank with a current like-for-like quote and keep the missing-cost checklist visible during review.
Save or print the completed assumptions for counsel and finance, and reconfirm every official amount, exchange rate, and deadline before giving filing instructions.