Patent Reimbursement (Indian)

The Patent Reimbursement (Indian) scheme is a benefit under the Uttar Pradesh Startup Policy 2020, implemented by U.P. Electronics Corporation Limited (UPLC) through the StartinUP portal — the state's dedicated startup facilitation platform under the Department of IT & Electronics, Government of Uttar Pradesh.

The scheme reimburses the professional/filing cost incurred by a UP-registered, StartinUP-recognised startup in successfully securing an Indian patent, up to ₹2 lakh per patent. Reimbursement is paid only after the patent is granted — that is, once the application has cleared examination and is formally awarded, not merely filed. This is designed to reduce the financial risk of pursuing IP protection for early-stage startups, who often defer patent filing because of legal and prosecution costs.

The scheme sits alongside the parallel Patent Reimbursement (International) benefit (up to ₹10 lakh) under the same UPLC/StartinUP IP-support umbrella, so a startup that secures both an Indian and a corresponding international patent on the same invention can claim both reimbursements.

Why patent protection matters early: for most startups, the biggest deterrent to filing isn't the idea of protecting IP — it's the upfront cost of attorney fees, prosecution, and examination, which can run into tens of thousands of rupees even for a single domestic filing before a rupee of revenue exists. A reimbursement-after-grant scheme like this lets a founder file confidently, knowing that a successful grant recovers a meaningful share of that cost, while still requiring the founder to see the filing through to a genuine grant rather than rewarding filings that are abandoned or rejected.

U.P. Electronics Corporation Limited (UPLC), the implementing agency, is a Government of Uttar Pradesh undertaking incorporated in 1974 and serves as the state's nodal agency for promoting IT and electronics industries, including administering the startup ecosystem benefits under StartinUP.