This summary is a brief overview of the various aspects of the patent application process and the corresponding costs and fees involved. It is our policy to let you know from the outset and in writing what it will cost for our firm to assist you.

We highly recommend to every potential patent applicant that a search be made of patents already granted to be sure that someone else has not already patented their idea. Better to find this out before an application is filed and its relative expenses incurred than afterwards. Our office charges a fixed fee for a patent search. The fee charged of potential patent applicants covers the patent search and various conferences with the inventor before and after the search has been completed. Our searches are carried out by a private search firm. The goal of the search is to detect prior art which might preclude your invention from being patented. Although this search cannot be guaranteed to detect every relevant patent, it is adequate for the purpose of deciding whether to pursue a particular application. The cost of a more thorough search, to ensure that one’s invention was not infringing on the patent of another, could equal the cost of filing the application itself.

A U.S. patentee currently has the right to exclude all others from making, using, or selling the patented invention in the U.S. following the patent’s issue date (which will typically be 12-24 months after the application date). In addition to the PTO issuance fee, the patentee must pay "maintenance fees" at 3, 7, and 11 years after the issue date in order to keep the patent in effect for the full term of 20 years from filing date. The first payment at the 3 year point is currently $450.

All of the fees mentioned apply to "small entities." In general, the PTO fees for "small entities" are 50% of the standard fees.