The following services and fees apply to most applications. Unusually complex applications will be charged more, however you will be advised up front if in the unlikely event that this applies.

Basic Search & Application Preparation Services

A. $199 -U.S. & Foreign Patent Search with Legal Opinion

B. $1000 -High Quality Provisional Patent Application + One Claim

C. $1000 -Regular Patent Application based on Provisional

    $2199 -Total Service Fee

Note: If the patent application is filed without first filing a provisional, then the total cost is $2089, and you save an additional $110 provisional filing fee.

Additional Patent Application Preparations Services

D. $300 -Include significant improvements of the provisional patent application in the regular patent application.

Following is a detailed discussion of the services I offer and their associated fees

A. $199 U.S. and Foreign Patent Search with Patentability Opinion

Applicable to inventors only. Compare to other search services that charge up to $1000.

We provide a full search of U.S. Patents and Publications, European Patent Documents, Japan Abstracts, and International (PCT) Applications. Based on the invention disclosure information you provide, we will do a full keyword, class and subclass search, and much more. The search results will be sent to you and will include:

• 
  

  A list of keywords searched

  
  


• 
  

  A list of class and subclass searched

  
  


• 
  

  Copies of patent and patent publication documents found to be relevant

  
  


• 
  

  Summary information of each document found

  
  


• 
  

  An opinion as to whether your invention is patentable based on the search results

  
  

The search results will be either emailed to you in zipped PDF format, sent by regular mail with a moderate printing charge, or by other means agreed to by mutual consent.

B. Provisional Patent Application: Service Fee: $1000

    Additional costs: +127.50 Patent Office filing fee and mailing fee

If your invention, based on the search, is determined to be patentable, then at your request we will prepare a provisional patent application for your invention.. This provisional patent application will include a title Page, a detailed description of the invention that describes how it is made and used, and formal drawings. With your final approval of the application, we will file the provisional patent application with the Patent Office, including all required forms and fees. Our total service cost is for a $1000 service fee. The detailed description and drawings will be of the highest quality, and may be incorporated without change into a regular patent application. These services are offered for the regular to moderately complex invention. Unusually complex applications may require additional fees; however this will be determined in the initial agreement after your invention as presented in your invention disclosure form is examined.

We also prepare one independent claim that is given to you separate from the Provisional Patent Application. The claim will be made as broad as possible. Although the claim could have been included in the filed provisional patent application, it is submitted to you separately for legal reasons. The broad claim is given to you at this time so you have an opportunity to start understanding what claims are, and how they protects your invention. Claims are the crucial part of the application that determines what your legal protection is. Furthermore claims are the most difficult part of the application for the independent inventor to comprehend, and this will give you a head start in understanding how they work.

Preparation of the provisional patent application is an iterative process conducted between the inventor and us. There is no extra charge for this iterative process. We will communicate by telephone, email, regular mail, FAX or in person as appropriate.

Warning. The purpose of filing a provisional patent application is to secure an effective filing date for the invention. This filing date will protect others from claiming the invention. The inventor is warned that in order for a later filed regular patent application that references the provisional patent application to claim that date, the provisional patent application must adequately describe the invention disclosed and claimed in the regular application. Any characterization of the invention presented in the regular application not supported in the provisional patent application or not adequately described there will be considered new matter and will lose the protection offered by the filing date of the provisional patent application.

Warning. Software designed to help inventors file a provisional patent application at a low cost, and patent services that offer to take your rough written descriptions and informal drawing and convert them into to a provisional patent application at a suspiciously low cost incurs the risk of providing significantly less protection that you are entitled to.

C. Regular Patent Application: Service Fee: $1000  (based on my Provisional Patent Application )

    Additional Costs: $562.50  for Patent Office filing fee + mailing fee

Preparing a regular patent application, In order to take advantage of the filing date of the provisional patent application, the inventor must file a regular patent application within one year of the provisional patent application’s filing date. We will prepare a regular patent application that claims benefit of the provisional patent application. The application will incorporate the description and drawings already completed in the provisional patent application, and will add additional components: a claim to the priority date of the provisional patent application, a detailed background section, a summary section, a list of figures, an abstract, and most importantly claims. The required filing forms and an information disclosure document disclosing prior art know by you or us that is relevant to evaluation the invention are also included.

• Start Marketing the Patent Pending Invention: After filing the provisional patent application, the inventor may legally use the term Patent Pending and can start investigating the marketing potential of the invention without incurring the additional costs of a regular filing
  


• Compensate for Newly Surfaced Prior Art. After filing the provisional patent application, the inventor has a year to determine if any additional patent documents, non-patent publications or commercially available products surface which needs to be accounted for in the regular application.
  


• Accommodate Improvements. Although most independent inventors aren't aware of this, the inventor can continue to improve the invention after the provisional patent application is filed. If the inventor wants to include these improvements in the not yet filed regular patent application, this can be done as follows. We will carefully modify the detailed description section and the drawings, and carefully craft the claims of the regular patent application so the improvements are properly accounted for. When this is done properly, the original invention can be claimed with a priority date of the provisional patent application filing date while the improvements can be addressed in separate claims with a priority date of the regular filing date.

Additional Patent Filing Services (optional)

D. Sevice Fee: $300 Regular Patent Application for including significant Improvements to the Provisional Patent Application in the regular application
         

This situation is covered in the Include Invention improvements section : above. Specifically, after the provisional patent application is filed, the inventor continues to improve the invention. If improvements are made we will modify the specification, drawings and claims in the already prepared application to incorporate the improvements. It will cost only an additional $300 as compared to C above for significantimprovements. This regular patent application must be filed with these improvements no later than one year after the provisional patent application filing date. For more complex situations, we will provide a cost estimate.

Prosecution Services

E. Prosecution Cost $100/Hr up to $1000, then $20/hr

(Patent office issue fee $1055)

The regular patent application typically is published by the patent office 18 months after the effective filing date, and then start prosecuting the application a year or more after the publication date. This is a wait of two and half years or more after the effective filing date. When prosecution occurs, actions by the Patent Office require responses by the patent agent. We will prepare and file the response, charging at the rate of $100/hour for our preparation time. However to limit your cost, if the cost reaches $1000, we then drastically reduce your remaining cost to $20/hr for our work

Payment Schedule.

If you agree to use me as your patent agent, the fee payment schedule is as follows:

A. Search: You provide me with a description of your invention. Once we agree that I have sufficient information of your invention so I can perform the search, you will send me the search fee. Upon receipt of the fee, I will perform the search and send you the results.

B thru D. Patent Application Preparation. The full fee is required at the start of the work in each of A through D. I will put the fee in a trust account. When my first draft is complete, I will send you the draft and withdraw half the fee from the trust account as my fee.  When the application is complete, I will send you a copy of the completed applications, and withdraw the remaining fee from the trust account.

E. Prosecution: Payment to be paid incrementally by agreement