WHAT DOES IT COST TO GET A PATENT
There are two stages to getting a patent, each with its own set of fees. The first stage is the filing stage. The second stage is the prosecution stage, which usually occurs approximately 18 to 36 months after the filing stage.
There are filing fees and attorney’s fees associated with filing a patent. Filing fees are fees you pay to the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) for filing your patent in their databases. These fees may increase slightly year to year, but for 2012 the cost for an individual inventor or for a company with less than 500 employees are:
- $125 to file a provisional patent
- Approximately $650 to file a utility patent application (depends on the number of claims, number of pages etc)
- $ 265 to file a design patent application
- Approximately $3000 to file an international patent application (depends on number of claims, number of pages, and of selected searching authority)
Attorney’s fees to file patent vary depending on the complexity of the invention and the amount and type of existing prior art. Fees are usually charged on hourly basis. The attorney will be able to give an estimate once you have discussed with him or her.
Attorney fees cover the actual writing of the patent, which includes:
- Drafting the claims – the claims capture the essence of your idea in broad terms. The claims are the most important part of the patent, and must be drafted correctly for maximum protection of your idea. The form of the claims depends also on what kind of patent you are seeking: claims for international applications may look different than the ones for a utility application in the U.S.
- Obtaining the proper drawings – a patent attorney usually uses a draftsman, who takes your sketches or ideas and turns them into drawings that meet all of the patent office’s criteria. Getting the drawings correct on first time is especially important when you file a design patent, because the drawing illustrates your invention.
- Drafting the specification- this part of the patent uses the drawings and your ideas to describe your invention in detail, and it is as comprehensive as possible to further protect you patent’s validity.
- Filing out the proper forms and submitting them to the patent office, with the proper filing fees.
A provisional application is never examined, it will expire in 12 months, and before that you should convert the provisional application into a utility or an international application. Benefits of a provisional application and the process of an international application are discussed in separate blogs.
Usually within about eighteen to thirty six months after the filing date of the utility application, an examiner at the patent office reviews the application, and typically rejects some of the claims. At this point the prosecution begins. Prosecution is the act of arguing the validity of the patent with the patent examiner, with the goal of convincing him or her to allow as many claims as possible, with as broad scope as possible. The attorney fees for this phase are variable depending largely on the contents and basis of the rejections the examiner made.
So, how much does it cost to get a patent? The attorney’s answer is ‘It depends’. It depends on what kind of application you want to file, do you want to have an international or US application, how complex is the prosecution, i.e. what are the contents of the office action, and so on. When you have an invention, the best estimate of the costs you would get by contacting the attorney, explaining him or her invention, and planning a best strategy for protection with the attorney.
The bottom line is that there are two phases of fees, the fees of the preparation and filing phase at the time the application is filed, and prosecution fees that incur after about eighteen to thirty six months after the filing.
Once the utility patent is issued there will be a set of maintenance fees during the life of the patent. First maintenance fee is due during the fourth year after filing, second one is due during the eight year after filing and the last maintenance fee is due on the twelfth year after the filing. By paying the maintenance fees timely gives the patent a life of twenty years from the filing.