How much does it cost to secure a patent in Europe?

This is the 1M$ question everybody has a different answer to, depending on different parameters which influence the budget in a major way.

In 2005 the European Patent Office provided a nice overview on overall cost associated with a European patent. Ten years later this still provides a reliable indicator for the budgetary level associated with a European patent. It can still be found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20081010173215/http://www.european-patent-office.org/epo/new/costs_ep_2005_en.pdf .

It was then estimated that the overall cost for an EP patent which is maintained for 10 years in 6 of the most designated contries ( Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland) would be 32k Euro.

The best strategy in terms of national applications as opposed to a European patent, as always depends on your specific needs. Often the most suitable strategy does not involve only European patents or only national applications, but a suitable mix of both.

From my own personal experience, an average European patent application (mechanical subject matter) costs between 15,000 USD and 20,000 USD to take to grant (from filing, through search and examination, and through the granting process including validations), including all official fees, all attorney fees, and attorney time and also including the validation phase assuming the patent is to be validated in DE, FR and GB, but not including post grant renewal fees. If you would like a more detailed breakdown, please let me know.

If you are planning on obtaining patent protection in DE, FR, and GB, the European patent route is probably about as cost effective as separate national applications. Applicants going for at least these three countries will generally file at the EPO versus separate national applications because of the ease of centralised prosecution. For national applications you would be required to file full translations of the patent specification in each country as well as go through multiple separate examination processes. However, if you only plan to protect in one or two countries, filing separate national applications is a viable option in terms of cost. It depends a little on the industry. For example, often applicants in the automotive industry will file only in Germany because this is by far the most relevant market. In such cases, it makes sense to proceed with just a national filing in DE.