Something to Consider Before Filing a Patent Application

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The process of obtaining a patent is one that takes as much time as it takes money, and I assure you it is not merely pocket change that the patent office requires you to pay throughout prosecution. The filing fee for a provisional application alone is $130 for a small entity and on top of that, drawings will run you about $100 to $125 per page. Of course, that can’t be all, as a patent agent or attorney will charge you about $2,000 for preparing and filing the application. Once it is all said and done, just to gain entry into prosecution, and with no further actions taken, will cost you $2,500. This is a hefty sum for many people and if your invention already exists, then you can essentially kiss that $2,500 goodbye.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, the $2,500 is for “simple” inventions. Seeking an attorney, or agent, to file a more complex invention, let’s say anything computer and software related, will up your attorney fees to $6,000 and will take significantly longer to hear back from the Patent Office.

Additionally, the time that prosecution takes, on average, is 24 months. This, coupled with the pace in which your industry evolves, may have you wasting valuable time that you could otherwise use selling and using your invention, granted that you knew that you had the freedom to operate.

Costs of Filing

For now, let us assume that you are interested in filing a patent for a relatively simple invention:

Provisional Application Attorney Fee and Preparation: $2,000

Provisional Filing Fee: $130

Nonprovisional Application Attorney Fee: $8,000

Nonprovisional Filing Fee: $800

Nonprovisional Drawings: $400

Total Cost for Filing: $11,330

As you can see, simply filing the application can be a costly process, and this doesn’t include the fees associated with the prosecution or any surcharges you may encounter in the process.

IP Cleveland Prior Art Searching

We here at IP Cleveland, want to ensure that inventors do not spend thousands of dollars in an attempt to obtain a patent, just to be told that the invention cannot be patented due to prior art or obviousness rejections. Instead, we will perform extensive searches through online web sources, journals, magazines, and intellectual property databases both domestic and international, to provide you with a patentability report that indicates any foreseeable prior art references, before you break the bank with an attorney.

We understand the importance of secrecy with intellectual property, therefore we make it our responsibility to maintain your invention and information in confidence.

Warning and Disclaimer: The pages, articles, and comments on IPCleveland.com do not constitute legal advice. The articles published express the opinions and views of the author as of the time of publication and should not be attributed to the author’s employer, clients or the sponsors of IPCleveland.com.