How much does a quality patent cost?

The cost estimates given above are the amount of money you should have on hand and be willing to spend to have a patent application prepared and examined to get a patent.  If you aren’t willing to spend this much money on your patent, I recommend that you not start the process because you will be giving up too soon and won’t know whether you could have gotten the patent or not.

Patent Cost Calculator

The above calculator is an estimate of costs.

If you want to know whether it is worth it to file a cheap patent application, read my article: Provisional Patent Application: A Cheap Alternative? 

What does a QUALITY patent or patent application look like?

Before we dive into the discussion of costs, let’s talk about quality.  If you search for a “cheap patent application” in Google, you will get a lot of hits on google with quotes lower than the costs that I mentioned above.  However, those low-cost patents are generally of dubious quality.  How do I know? Some of my clients previously used those types of services.

The quality of a patent refers to different aspects of the patent.  But, in general, it refers primarily to the ability of the patent to stop your competitors from designing around your patent to effectively compete against you without infringing on your patent.  For broad patent protection, the patent should cover the point of novelty of the invention.  Otherwise, it would be easy to get around your patent.

Unfortunately, no computer program exists that can analyze whether a patent gives you broad or narrow protection.  Life isn’t that simple.  Some patent attorneys do a better job at it than others.

Expensive does not always mean high quality

Quality and cost have a direct relationship with each other.  In general, very cheap patents have very low quality.  However, very expensive patent applications don’t necessarily mean that the patent is of very high quality.  The quality between a mid-priced and a high-priced patent might be equal to each other.  Why? As you go up in price, there is a point of diminishing returns based on what you want to get done.  As the graph below illustrates, as the cost goes up the quality remains fairly the same.

Why is that? It is because, at the expensive end of the spectrum, you may be paying for services that you don’t need.

Let me explain.  Patents cost a lot more when you retain a large law firm (more than 100 attorneys) to get your patent.  In some situations, these high expenses are justified.  Let me give you a few examples.  If you need a person with a Ph.D. to understand your invention, then you should hire a large law firm.  They attract specialized technical expertise that is required to get this kind of work done.  You might need 100 patent applications filed next month.  Well, a large law firm has the human resources to can get that done for you.

Well, if you don’t need those resources available to you, then you don’t need to pay large law firm prices.  You can use a smaller law firm that provides the same degree of quality.

Should you hire a patent attorney?

Yes, you should hire someone to help you through the patent process.  It is too nuanced to do it yourself properly.

You have three options when you hire a patent attorney.

You can hire three types of law firms: solo practitioner, a dedicated intellectual property law firm, and a large general practice law firm.  A solo practitioner is one that works by themselves to get work done.  A dedicated intellectual property firm is a group of about 5 to 30 patent attorneys that limit their practice primarily to intellectual property matters.  A large general practice law firm is one with hundreds of attorneys with many different specialties.

So, which one should you choose?  In my opinion, each one has its pros and cons.  My law firm is in the middle of the two extremes.  We are a dedicated intellectual property law firm.  I had an opportunity to go to a large law firm but decided not to because of the value proposition to clients.  I’m letting you know so that you understand the bias of the article.

In my opinion, I would tend to shy away from the solo practice patent attorney.  The operations are much smaller.  The redundancies to prevent failure is minimal.  Some solo practice patent attorneys are great.  However, it would be hard to identify the great ones from the mediocre ones.

I’m discounting patent agents.  They can’t advise on agreements and contracts.  They can’t legally advise you on all areas of patent law.

Large law firms are great if you have hundreds of patent applications to file in a short time.  They have the human resources to get the job done.  Also, if you need a patent attorney with a particular doctoral science degree, then the large law firms have enough business to attract that type of personnel.  However, for the vast majority of startups and mid-sized businesses, the medium-sized boutique patent law firm does fairly well for you.  The pricing is average.  They also are large enough to have the redundancies and support system so that you are protected.

Breakdown of patents cost 

Because the cost for a patent application and patent is so much, you must be asking why a patent costs so much.

To answer why it costs so much, let’s look at the breakdown of costs to get a quality patent?  The patent costs include:

1. Government fees
2. Drawing fees
3. Attorney fees

For a quality patent, the majority of the cost is the attorney fees.  Here is a breakdown of the fees so that you can see them for yourself.

Government fees

The basic government filing fee for a nonprovisional patent application is as follows:

1. Micro entity filing fee: $400
2. Small entity filing fee: $800
3. Large entity filing fee: $1,600

If all goes smoothly and you receive a first action Notice of Allowance, then the only other fee that you would have to pay for is the issue fee.  The governmental issue fee for a nonprovisional utility patent application is as follows:

1. Micro entity filing fee: $250
2. Small entity filing fee: $500
3. Large entity filing fee: $1000

Drawing fees

The drawing fees are typically about $500 to $1000.  They usually run around $40 to $150 per drawing page.

Attorney fees

The rest of the cost is for attorney fees.  Based on simple math, about 80% to 90% of the patent and patent application cost is from attorney fees.

Is it worth it to hire a patent attorney?

A good patent attorney is worth the money.  I’ve seen many transferred-in cases and most of them are not of good quality.  Just because you paid money for your patent or patent application, it doesn’t mean that you have a quality patent or patent application.  The quality of a patent application can depend on many different factors.  For example, does it accomplish what you would like it to do?  Some may want a patent just to have a patent.  Others need to have a patent that can be used to stop competitors.

Related questions:

How much does a patent cost for a mobile application?

The cost for a patent on a mobile application will be about $15,000 to $25,000.  The cost depends on the complexity of the mobile application and also other factors.

How much does it cost to patent an idea worldwide?

A worldwide patent does not exist.  You can, however, reserve the right to get a patent in most developing nations by filing a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application.  Read more about the pros and cons of worldwide patent protection.  The PCT application covers most developing and developed countries except for Taiwan and a few South American countries.  If you would like to seek patent protection in about 35 countries having a large Gross Domestic Product, that will cost you about $90,000.

What is a poor man’s patent?

A poor man’s patent is a way to reserve your right to establish a priority date.  The myth is that you can mail a description of the invention to yourself through the United States Postal Service.  Since a government agency stamped the mail date on the envelope, you can prove that you had the idea as of the mail date.  Unfortunately, this cannot work for multiple reasons.  The most recent reason is that the United States transitioned from a first to invent rule to a first inventor to file rule.  Under the first to invent rule, the person that invented first got the patent.  I’m greatly simplifying the rule, but that is the crux of the rule.  Under a first inventor to file rule, because you mailed it to yourself and didn’t file the patent application with the USPTO (the United States Patent and Trademark Office), you did not establish a priority date.  You had to file the description of the invention with the patent office, not just mail it to yourself.

I invite you to contact me with your patent questions at (949) 433-0900. Please feel free to forward this article to your friends. As an Orange County Patent Attorney, I serve Orange County, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego, and surrounding cities.