KAPILA Scheme for Schools: Up to ₹34,100 Patent Funding per Application

KAPILA for Schools reimburses a school up to ₹34,100 for each patent application filed by its students or teachers. The Kalam Program for IP Literacy and Awareness is run by the Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell and AICTE, together with the Department of School Education & Literacy (DoSEL) and NCERT. It repays three costs: the official filing fee (₹1,600), the early publication fee (₹2,500), and professional drafting and filing charges of up to ₹30,000. The school pays first and claims the money back afterwards.

Most schools never apply, even when a student has a genuinely new idea. Some don’t know the scheme exists. Others assume a patent costs too much, or get stuck on the paperwork. This guide sets out what the scheme pays for, who can apply, the committee a school must set up, and the documents you must submit to get reimbursed. You can download the official expenditure formats at the end.

What is the KAPILA scheme for schools?

KAPILA is named after Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who spent his life encouraging young Indians to invent and to think of themselves as builders. The scheme started with higher education institutions. The school version applies the same idea to schools under the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education.

The scheme document sets out two aims:

• Awareness. Students, teachers and staff should understand why intellectual property matters, and how IP is filed in India and abroad.
• A filing culture. Schools should build a habit of protecting new ideas, research and innovation in a systematic way, instead of losing them at the science fair.

The programme also connects schools to the Ministry’s wider innovation initiatives: the School Innovation Council (SIC), the School Innovation Ambassador Training Program (SIATP), the School Innovation Contest and hackathons. It aims for up to 100 school patent applications a year nationally, so funding is limited and applications are assessed for merit.

How much funding does KAPILA give a school?

The scheme reimburses three items for each patent application:

The two official fees match what the Patent Office charges a natural person, a startup, a small entity or an educational institution filing online. The ₹30,000 drafting allowance is the part that matters most. A patent is only as strong as its written specification and claims, and a school does not have to settle for a template draft just to keep costs down.

The scheme does not list the request for examination fee (Form 18, ₹4,000 for this applicant category) among the reimbursable heads. A patent application is not examined until that request is filed, so budget for it separately. The deadline is 48 months from the priority date. Later fees, such as renewal fees after grant, are also outside the scheme. You can see every stage on our Indian patent fee calculator.

Who can apply?

• The school applies, not the student. Applications go through the KAPILA portal on behalf of the student or teacher inventors.
• The school’s student or teacher must be the first applicant. The scheme document is explicit: if the first applicant is not from the school, the application is not funded. Check this before the application is filed, because it is hard to fix afterwards.
• The money goes to the school’s bank account only. It is never paid to an individual. The school then passes the grant on to the patent applicant.
• Applications are accepted all year. Funds are released every quarter.

The five-member committee every school must form

Before a school can seek funding, it must set up an evaluation committee in line with its School Innovation Council. The committee needs at least five members:

• Two teachers with relevant knowledge of IPR;
• Two alumni or industry experts with experience in technology commercialisation; and
• One legal advisor with experience in IPR.

If a school cannot find enough qualified people among its own staff and alumni, it may bring in teachers or alumni from other schools or higher education institutions. The school pays any honorarium for the experts from its own funds. It must keep the minutes of each committee meeting and the evaluation report on file and submit them to the MoE’s Innovation Cell when asked. A format for the minutes is available on the KAPILA website.

Any IPR cell or incubation centre involved acts only as a coordinator. It has no say in how the invention is carried out or how it is patented.

The legal advisor seat is where a registered patent agent helps most. Before the school spends anything, they can tell the committee whether the idea is likely to be new, whether it falls within one of the Section 3 exclusions (for example, a mere arrangement of known devices or a computer program as such), and whether it is worth filing now or should be developed further first.

Step by step: from student idea to reimbursement

1. Identify the invention. A teacher or the SIC shortlists student and teacher ideas that solve a real technical problem in a new way.
2. Committee review. The five-member committee examines each idea and records its decision in minutes.
3. Prior art search. Before drafting, search existing patents and publications. Many school ideas have already been patented elsewhere, and finding that out early saves the drafting fee. See how our patentability search report works.
4. Draft and file. A registered patent agent drafts the specification and claims and files Form 1 with the Indian Patent Office, with the student or teacher as first applicant. Request early publication on Form 9 at the same time or soon after.
5. Collect the receipts. Keep the official fee receipt in G.A.R.-6 format and the agent’s invoice, showing the agent’s GST number and the patent application number, along with proof of payment.
6. Submit on the KAPILA portal. Enter the title, filing date, applicant and co-applicant details, and upload the receipts and the Statement of Expenditure.
7. Screening and approval. Submissions are checked for accuracy. The MoE’s Innovation Cell decides on the basis of the expert committee’s recommendations and the funds available.
8. Reimbursement. The full sanctioned amount is released as grant-in-aid to the head of the school, who passes it on to the applicant.

Documents required for KAPILA reimbursement

To claim the money back, the school submits:

• Patent fee receipts for the application filing fee and the early publication fee, in G.A.R.-6 format, as generated by the Indian Patent Office e-filing system.
• The patent specification drafting charges receipt. It must show the service provider’s GST number and the patent application number, and come with proof of payment.
• The Statement of Expenditure in the prescribed format. There are separate formats for government and private schools (download them below).
• Minutes of the committee meeting recording that the application was evaluated and approved.

Government schools: the original Statement of Expenditure is signed by the Head of School and countersigned by the Director, Principal, Finance Officer or a Government Auditor.

Private and self-financing schools: the Statement of Expenditure and the Utilisation Certificate must be audited and signed by a Chartered Accountant, with membership number, full address and stamp. The private-school format has a second signature block for this.

Each Statement records the school’s UDISE code, name and address, the Head of School’s contact details, and, for each patent application, the application number as shown in the Indian Patent Office records, the filing fee, the early publication fee, the drafting charges and the total, in figures and in words.

After the scheme is completed, the school also sends AICTE a Utilisation Certificate (in GFR-19 format) with the audited Statement of Expenditure, giving a head-wise breakdown of how the grant was used.

Common reasons claims are delayed

• The patent application number on the drafting invoice does not match the Patent Office receipt. Use the same 12-digit application number, and the same KAPILA application ID, in every submission for that application.
• The invoice has no GST number, or there is no proof of payment.
• The school’s student or teacher is not the first applicant.
• A private school submits a Statement signed by the principal but not certified by a CA.
• The committee minutes are missing or do not list every application submitted.

Download the KAPILA formats

• Format of Statement of Expenditure, Government School (.docx)
• Format of Statement of Expenditure, Private School (.docx)
• KAPILA for Schools, Scheme Document (PDF)

For questions about the scheme itself, contact the KAPILA team at AICTE: [email protected], 011-2958-1520 or 9289090268.

Frequently asked questions

Can a student be the applicant on a patent in India?

Yes. The Patents Act sets no minimum age for an inventor or applicant. Where the applicant is a minor, a parent or guardian normally signs the forms on the student’s behalf. For KAPILA funding, the first applicant must be a student or teacher from the school.

Does KAPILA pay before filing?

No. KAPILA works on reimbursement. The school pays the official fees and the drafting charges first, then claims them back with receipts and the Statement of Expenditure.

Is the ₹34,100 a fixed amount?

It is a ceiling. The school is reimbursed what it actually spent under each head, up to ₹1,600 for filing, ₹2,500 for early publication and ₹30,000 for drafting and filing charges.

Why does the scheme pay for early publication?

An application is normally published 18 months after filing. Early publication on Form 9 brings this forward to about a month after the request. Provisional protection runs from publication, and an application cannot be examined until it has been published, so filing Form 9 shortens the overall timeline.

When can a school apply?

Applications are accepted throughout the year, and funds are released quarterly.

Help for schools filing under KAPILA

Legismith Partners LLP is a registered patent agency based in Pune and Nashik. We can act as the legal advisor on a school’s KAPILA committee, run a prior art search on shortlisted ideas, and draft and file the application within the scheme’s ₹30,000 drafting allowance. Every invoice carries our GST number and the patent application number, in the form the reimbursement claim needs.

Send us a one-page description of your student’s idea and we will tell you, free of charge, whether it looks patentable and what filing it would involve. For the full process, see our complete patent filing guide for India.

Featured image: Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Government of India, via Wikimedia Commons, under the Government Open Data License – India.

Sources

• KAPILA: Kalam Program for IP Literacy and Awareness for Schools, Scheme Document (MoE’s Innovation Cell / AICTE).
• Communication from the Innovation Cell, AICTE, DoSEL and NCERT to school principals and teachers on KAPILA for Schools.
• The Patents Act, 1970 and First Schedule to the Patents Rules, 2003 (Forms 1, 9 and 18).

This article is general information about a government scheme and Indian patent procedure. It is not legal advice. Scheme terms, amounts and portals can change, so check the current scheme document before applying.