Patent work is increasingly being outsourced to India.

After BPO and KPO, it is now the turn of the complex knowledge work of patenting consultancy or IP services to get outsourced to India.

As always, the cost factor weighs heavily in favour of India. While the process of filing for a patent in the US costs about $15,000 to $25,000, the same work can be done out of India for as little as $4,000.

"It makes sense for companies to outsource patent work directly to India, instead of approaching law firms in the US," said Arun K Narasani, CEO of Brainleague, a Bangalore-based IP services outsourcing firm.

The firm has drafted specifications for 75 patent applications in the last one year.

The opportunities for firms like Brainleague are enormous. At present, there are about 35,000 patent attorneys in the US, while close to 500,000 patents are being filed every year.

As the filings have been growing at 27 percent year on year, the figure could touch five million in ten years. That is where India can step in.

Fish & Richardson, a large US legal firm, cites estimates that by 2016, almost 60 percent of all US legal work will be done in India. Thus, almost three million patent filings could be drafted in India.

At a conservative estimate of $4,000 per patent application, the patent outsourcing opportunity could translate into $12 billion by 2016!

With such prospects in sight, some independent IP outsourcing companies in India like eValueserve, Brainleague, Intellvate, and IP Horizons are preparing themselves for big times.

Besides, there are legal firms like Lakshmi, Kumaran and Sridharan, Fox & Mandal, Nishith Desai, Anand & Anand, and Majumdar & Co that offer IP outsourcing services.

Since the information sought to be patented is highly sensitive, high security standards have to be maintained by the outsourcing partners, that have to sign non-disclosure agreements with their clients.