How Much Does a Patent Cost?
A lot of inventors and entrepreneurs want to know the costs of a patent and that is understandable.
The biggest factor in the cost of a patent is determined by the patent search. The search tells us how crowded the field of your invention is and how close competitors have come to your idea.
Understanding Your Competition
The more patents that come up in the search and the closer they are to your invention, the more time a patent attorney has to spend on your application in distinguishing your idea from the prior art (i.e. –existing solutions). This brings up the costs of your filing and that is why I typically wait until the search is complete to provide a fixed-fee quote. The following should make these dynamics clearer to you keeping in mind that method software, heavy electrical, biotechnology, and chemical application fees are typically higher than shown below:
CLEAR FIELD
No rival solutions, or very few!
$
4,000
/Legal Fees
-
Your idea is relatively simple
-
Nothing like it exists
-
A clear field
-
Little competition
SOME COMPETING
IDEAS
A moderate amount of competition
$
8,000
/Legal Fees
-
Idea simple to moderately complex
-
Several competing solutions
HEAVILY CROWDED FIELD
Heavy competition and complex idea
$
12,000
/Legal Fees
-
Heavily crowded
-
Multiple competing ideas
-
Idea moderately complex to complex
Tell us about your invention
I will be glad to offer you my advice and experience.