How Much Does Patent Costs For Full Protection?

There are many rules and regulations to obtaining a patent. The value of a patent gives you protection on an invention. However, the patent can only protect something if it is written well. In order to find a good patent attorney, you will have to pay for their service. Entrepreneurs who are hoping to secure a patent for their invention should be familiar with the process and its costs. In this post, we’ll highlight the main patent costs so that you can budget for the whole process.

Provisional Patent Costs

Before securing a full patent, you can apply for a provisional patent. For a small fee of $65, you can apply for a provisional patent yourself. Or, you can hire a patent service that will provide provisional patent templates to articulate your invention. Moreover, a patent attorney can help you withe the provisional patent application. In all of these cases, the costs are significantly lower because the provisional status grants one year to apply for a design or utility patent. For less that $500, you could have over a year to work on a complete patent application for the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Non-Provisional Patent Costs

Next, you should start working on the non-provisional patent application. Depending on the type of patent these costs can vary. Just to apply for a non-provisional patent, the application costs $900. This patent costs includes the fees to cover the patent search, review and examination charges. An officer at the USPTO will do a search for your patent, review your application and examine it for the patent criteria. If you decide to do all the patent writing by yourself, it could cost as little as $900 plus the $65 in patent costs.

Patent Attorney Consultation Fees

Since it can take many years of training and experience to become a patent attorney, their services are the majority of patent costs. If you would like to keep your attorney fees lower, you can hire a patent attorney to consult for you on an hourly basis. These patent consultations would cost anywhere between $250-$500 per hour for a basic search and insight about your patent application. Keep in mind, these lawyers would eventually be the people to defend any patent or trademark infringement cases. Thus, you need to carefully consider who you work with.

Preparing A Utility Patent Costs Vary

Additionally, you can hire a patent attorney to do the complete preparation and filing of the application. This patent cost would vary based on the type and complexity of the environment. A minimal patent with about 10 pages and 10 claims could cost around $8,000-$10,000. For more complex inventions that include mechanical, electrical or computer cases, the job costing could go as high as $15,000. These patent costs will vary greatly depending on the patent attorney fees and complexity of the invention.

Additional Patent Renewal Costs

After applying and filing for a patent with the USPTO, there are still renewal costs to keep your patent active. First, you will have to pay $450 upon issuance of your patent. Then, you are required to pay maintenance fees between $400-$1850 over the next 12 years. In total, you could end up paying more than $3,150 in maintenance patent costs. These are important to think about in addition to the costs of securing your patent.

As you can see, how much does a patent cost will vary greatly on your attorney fees and type of invention. You can try to keep costs low, use template services or hire a patent attorney to do the whole application. The patent costs can range from $965 to $15,000+ for a full patent. If you are interested in obtaining a patent for your technology and business inventions, take the time to consider if the upfront and maintenance patent costs are worth while. Then, you can decide how to budget your finances to pay for the patent costs.