How much does a patent cost?
This is a simple question with, as is often the case with legal issues, a fairly complex answer. But you are probably not looking for tons of nuance at this early stage of your research, so for the purposes of this site, here’s a good general guidline:
$8-10k within the next year, and another $7-10k spread over the 2-4 years after that, for a grand total of $15-20k over 3-5 years
This answer is VERY back-of-the-envelope, and there are a lot of disclaimers or caveats that go with it. We will dive into some the disclaimers and caveats below, in case you are interested in knowing a little bit more.
One point to note up front. Patent applications are, generally speaking, one of those things that fall into the category of “you get what you pay for.” Like toilet paper and sushi, you do not want to just get the cheapest one you can find.
Now let’s talk about how to prepare your patent application. On this front, there are a number of options. You could prepare it and file it yourself, which is generally not your best bet (see point directly above). In a few specific situations, doing it yourself may make sense, but if you are reading this to help understand what to do, the answer is that you’re almost certainly not in any of those few specific situations.
So if you are not going to prepare your patent application yourself, then you will need to hire a qualified patent attorney or patent agent. A patent attorney is someone who is both an attorney and is registered to practice at the Patent Office. A patent agent is registered to practice at the Patent Office but is not an attorney.
Assuming you are going to hire a patent attorney to help you, let’s talk about where these numbers come from. They may seem high, but when you break them down, they’re really not as crazy as they seem. When we talk about patent costs, there are two phases to consider. There is the preparation of the initial patent application (which we generally refer to as “prep”). Once the application has been filed with the Patent Office, then you begin the process of arguing back and forth with the Patent Office about why they should grant your application. This “arguing” process that occurs after your application has been filed is generally referred to as “prosecution” or “patent prosecution.” These two things together may be referred to as “prep/pros.”
The cost of getting a patent will include two separate costs: (1) attorney fees for preparing and filing the application for you; and (2) application fees paid to the Patent Office. The attorney keeps the attorney fees but not the fees paid to the Patent Office.
The biggest component of the above numbers is attorney fees, which can vary greatly depending on the attorney you select. Attorneys at smaller law firms are usually cheaper than attorneys at larger law firms. Similarly, law firms in smaller cities are usually cheaper than law firms in larger cities. A good rule of thumb here is that a good patent attorney will cost about $250-$500 per hour.
Let’s look at a quick example. $3,500 for a provisional patent application (see here for the different types of patent applications).
At those rates, $4,000 for a provisional patent application is only 8-16 hours of attorney time, which is not as much as you might think. In other words, for $4,000, an attorney only has one or two days to write everything for your patent application, including the description, the drawings, and the claims. Many attorneys will charge you a “capped” fee, meaning they’ll spend more time on the application, but they’ll cap it at a certain number (for example, $4,000).
The application fees paid to the Patent Office can be found here. This link is the Patent Office’s webpage and should always be up to date and accurate. As you can see from the link, the Patent Office fees differ based on your size. If you’re reading this website, you’re likely either a small entity or a micro entity.