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MORE ON GOVERNMENT PATENT APPLICATION FILING COSTS
Fees. The Government charges (as of 10-DEC-2020) a small entity a $830 initial application fee consisting of search fee ($350), an examination fee ($400) and a filing fee ($80). These fees are double for a large entity and half for a micro-entity.
Excess Claims. Extra fees are due when the number of claims is larger than 20 or if there are complex claims. You can look up all the latest fees at the patent office site: http://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/fees-and-payment/uspto-fee-schedule. Govenment fees referenced on this page are those effective 19-APR-2021.
Assignments. If the inventor wants to assign
ownership of the invention to a company, attorney fees for preparation
of U.S. signatory assignment documents and transmittal to the USPTO are
fixed at $250.
Patent Issuance and Maintenance. For a small
entity, the Government charges a patent issuance fee of $600, and maintenance fees over the life of a patent of about $6,720. The maintenance fees are payable at years 3.5 ($1000), 7.5 ($1,880), and 11.5 ($3,850) after patent issuance. Patent Office fees are twice as much for a large entity, and half as much for a micro-entity.
Total Government Fees. Adding usual application fees for a small entity ($830), plus patent issuance fees ($600), plus patent maintenance fees ($6,720) totals to minimum
Government fees for a utility patent of $8,150. For a large entity, this minimum is totals to $16,300.
WHAT OTHER PATENT ATTORNEYS CHARGE
What the Competition
Charges.
According to the American Intellectual Property Law Association
2017 Report of the Economic Survey, revealing costs in 2016 --
-
average
2017 Patent Attorney fees for preparing an original non-provisional
application of minimal complexity are about $7,000. For complex
applications fees range from $8,500 to $12,000 in all fields; plus
-
an average
patent prosecution cost in 2017 for each relatively complex amendment
and supporting paper of $2,800-3,200 (several may be needed per
application) (compare with a maximum prosecution charge up to a
final examiner decision for a small entity of $2,000 by Attorney Louis
Ventre, Jr.); -
average attorney fees for issuing an allowed application ($600).
The above costs typically charged by patent attorneys include the following costs:
-
costs
for preparation of drawings ($550 - $600); and
-
costs
for patentability (novelty) search with opinion on patentability
($2,000 or more).
In addition, the usual filing and other costs,
discussed above, are added to these charges.
Back
to top
PATENT APPLICATION PREPARATION AND FOLLOWING
What is filed? An application is typically
drafted from your write-up of the invention and the completed package is
submitted electronically. A U.S. patent application can be prepared
in about 4 weeks or less. If time limits are about to expire, or if
you simply want to get up to an extra year of protection, you may want to
submit a provisional
patent application that fully describes the invention.
What happens after filing? The Patent Office reviews
the patent application and usually issues an office action requiring
changes to overcome prior art it has found. Typically, the Patent Office
examiner sends out an office action rejecting some or all of the claims of
the patent application in view of the prior art the examiner has found. At
this point, the attorney must respond to the office action. A typical
response includes a meeting
with the examiner to discuss the office action and what is needed to
overcome the objection(s). This is followed by the preparation and
submission of amendments to the claims, specification text and/or
drawings, consistent with the agreement reached at the meeting and
distinctiveness of the invention described in the application. This
process is called patent
prosecution.
How Long Does it Take? It typically takes about 2 to 3
years from application to issuance.
Can I Determine If I Have a Patentable Invention
Before I Invest in An Application? Yes, partly: You have to
make your initial deposit, but it gets refunded, with certain exceptions involving high failure risk invention areas, if you decide not to
proceed after a preliminary patentability
determination. For the high failure risk areas, all but $1,500 is refundable. These areas of high failure risk, typically defined as abstract inventions, are identified in advance so that there should be no confusion on your part.. Essentially, for most invention areas, this Law Firm performs a
preliminary patentability search at no additional cost to you. This
typically involves a reasonable search of other United States patents and
applications, but will not be an exhaustive search and review of all the
prior art. It will usually be sufficient to reach a determination about
whether or not you should proceed with a patent application. If you decide
not to proceed, the paid retainer actually received from you will be refunded, except for certain exceptions involving high failure risk invention areas. For the high failure risk areas, all but $1,500 is refunded. .
According to the American Intellectual Property Law Association
2017 Report of the Economic Survey, the median cost range in 2017 for a novelty search is
approximately $2,000. Back to top
OTHER PATENT APPLICATION OPTIONS
International Patent. The right conferred by
the United States Government in a patent grant is, "the right to
exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling" the
invention in the United States or "importing" the invention into
the United States. A U.S. Patent offers protection only in the United
States. See the page on PCT
applications for more information on international patent protection.
If you want protection in a foreign country, this Law Firm can prepare an
international patent application (PCT application) and file it. This is
usually done within a year of filing the U.S. patent application. Be aware
that after the international period (a maximum of about 31 months from the
filing or priority date of the PCT application), an attorney licensed in
each of the foreign nations from which you seek patent protection must be
retained. Typically, an international patent can cost $25,000. Visit this
Law Firm's web page on PCT
applications, or you may call or write me for additional information.
Provisional Application. If you have a
fully complete invention description, a provisional application will
generally require only a few days work. If not, you might still file a provisional
application, which would add about $1,240 to your overall patenting
costs. A provisional patent application is valid for 1 year, during
which time a regular patent application must be prepared and submitted in
order to take advantage of the provisional filing date.
More Answers on Patents. See the FAQ
page, the Design Patent
page , the Plant Patent page,
the Provisional
Patent Application page, the Business
Method Patent page, and the Software
Patent page for more questions answered on patents.
I WANT TO PROCEED
What you must provide.
Start by telling Attorney Louis Ventre, Jr. in general about what
you would like to have done and a short non-proprietary description
of what you have invented. Telephone him at 703-242-1247 or Email to:
lventre@lventre.com.
If you use email, it is recommended that you send any information
as an MS Word attachment to an email and use a password on the
document. This Law Firm's Disclaimers
page has information on how to do that and explains that emails are
subject to interception by third parties and should not be
considered secure.
Attorney Louis Ventre, Jr. will review your information free of
charge. If this Law Firm does not have a conflict of interest and
agrees to represent you, you will be asked to sign a contract that
commits Louis Ventre, Jr. to represent you and details what you will
pay for legal services.
So, if Louis Ventre, Jr. agrees to represent you, the process gets
started by your being sent a contract for legal representational
services. Terms consistent with what is stated above will be set
forth in the agreement. After you review it, you can electronically
sign it and email it back. You will receive further instructions on
how to do that. If you are more comfortable with signing by
hand, you may do so and mail it or fax it with your write-up of your
invention.
If you already have a write-up, it would help if you also prepared
at least one hand sketch or drawing. In your write-up, you should
describe how you think your invention improves on existing
technology or processes and what problems it solves. Download
an MS
Word invention description form that may help you to organize
the information you need to provide. It is also available in pdf
format.
Your activities to sell the invention and to whom you talked about
your invention are important to patentability. Please disclose the
dates of these events if they occurred. Generally, U.S. law
prohibits granting a patent if it has been marketed or described in
a publication over a year before the submission of the application.
See the FAQ
page for more discussion of this prohibition.
If you file an application for a patent with the U.S. Patent Office,
you will have to sign an oath or declaration promising to disclose
all you know of the prior art that could affect the validity of the
claimed invention. Hiding such prior art is not only a felony, but
it will not save the patent from invalidity if a court finds finds
out about your having hidden such prior art, or if it finds out
about prior art that makes it an obvious invention.
Email your additional questions to lventre@lventre.com and you
will promptly receive an answer.
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