[easy-social-share buttons="facebook,twitter,linkedin" counters=0 style="button" point_type="simple"]
The above cost are merely estimates of the breakdown of patent costs. Your patent application and patent may cost more or less than the estimates provided above. If you would like to have an exact price, please feel free to give me a call or schedule your consultation.
Patent cost factors
- Mechanical inventions include consumer products, industrial machinery, tools. However, they do not have any electronics or software.
- Electrical inventions include circuits, devices with a circuit board. However, they do not include any software.
- Software inventions are programs that can be run entirely on a computer. No outside hardware is required.
- Combination inventions are ideas that have software, electronics and mechanical components (e.g., display).
- Utility patent protects functional features.
- Design patent protects looks of the product.
- A provisional patent application is designed to delay examination costs. In doing so, you will also delay the grant of any patent.
- A nonprovisional patent application enters the queue for examination. It normally takes about 18 months till the first examination occurs.
- Large entity: everyone is a large entity unless you qualify as a small entity or a micro entity.
- Small entity: A small entity is an entity with less than 500 employees including part time employees. If you are close to the 500 mark, then pay large entity fees. Otherwise, it may jeopardize the validity of any patent if you inadvertently go over the 500 mark but still pay small entity fees. Small entities pay 50% of the government fee compared to the large entity.
- Micro entity: A micro entity is an entity that is a small entity, plus has filed less than four patent application and reported less than 3 times the median income in the United States. Currently, you have to at least make less than $184,116 per year.
If you license your patent pending or patent to a larger entity, then you must pay the entity fee matching the larger entity.
An easy way to determine if your invention is simple or complex is to look at the number of moving parts.
- Simple inventions have no moving parts.
- Medium complexity invention may have one moving part.
- Complex inventions have multiple parts cooperating with each other.
If you’ve drawn up your invention in a CAD program, then you should have a good idea of the number of drawing sheets for you invention. For simple inventions, you can estimate about 1-4 figures. For medium complexity inventions, you can estimate 5-10 figures. Complex inventions would require more than 10 figures. Each figure is generally one sheet.
If you file a PPA, you cannot expedite its processing. A PPA is never examined and thus there is no reason to expedite its processing. If you file a NPA, then you can expedite the examination. Under normal circumstances, a NPA is examined 18 months after it is filed. Under expedited processing, the NPA is examined in about 4-6 months.
Patent Cost Estimates
The government charges fees based on your entity size.
Most of the cost if you hire a patent attorney is based on attorney fee.
Drawing costs will be around $500 to $700 for most inventions.
The cost for a PPA is slightly lower than the Cost for NPA. Many will ask why. Simply put, a patent application can cost anything you would like it to cost. The real difference is in the quality of the patent. Will it give you the patent pendency type patent protection that you expect that it would give you. As such, to get the same protection in a PPA as a NPA, you have to spend the time to write up a full disclosure of the invention. In that case, the cost of the PPA is close to the cost of the NPA.
Because I'm not wasting your time and money preparing a skimpy PPA, the cost for the upgrade is not too much. Basically, I'm just filling in the blank sections of the patent application which was not required when the PPA was filed.
Cost for NPA = Cost for PPA + Cost to upgrade to NPA
This is the cost for an attorney to respond to the office action rendered by the examiner.
Total cost for patent = Cost for NPA + Examination cost