THE PATENT PROCESS: COSTS AND TIME
Is getting a patent the first step in developing a product?
Not necessarily. Estimating marketability, technical feasibility and cost of manufacture are often more important. There's more material on this theme elsewhere on this site.
Having put that out of the way, let's look at what happens to a fairly
typical
Step One in the patent process: a search ($
A common first step is doing a "novelty search". The goal of this effort is to help you estimate just what sort of protection is available, and if it appears to be worthwhile proceeding. The cost of the search and the time to complete it will vary with the subject area of the invention. As a general rule, figure that the effort that goes into the search should result in a cost that is about 10% or so of the overall patenting cost. If you know the technology and market well, and think that you might be racing a competitor to the Patent Office, you might be best off skipping this step. Otherwise, a search is almost always worthwhile.
Step Two: Preparing and Filing the Application ($3000-8000; usually about 1-3 months)
Preparing the patent application is next. The time and cost are going to depend on the complexity of the invention and on the quality of the disclosure materials that you've put together to educate your agent or attorney about the important aspects of the invention. You should expect to work through several drafts of the application. Be critical. If you're happy with the first draft when you see it -- you probably won't be happy with the patent that it produces.
A 1999 survey of patent practitioners in 7 major countries indicates an
invention of average complexity involves agent or
attorney fees of $3000 or so to prepare the application.
Complicated cases cost more. There are also Patent Office fees ($400 or
so in the
Drawings are almost always part of an application. Filing informal sketches can speed up the process of preparing the application and can defer the patent drafters fee.
Step Three: A Long Wait (YMMV)
In the
Step Four: Examination and Argument ($
Eventually a patent examiner will read your application and compare it to
what he or she thinks are the closest references from the prior art. In the
Your reply to the examiner gets handled much more quickly than does the
initial application. Most of the time a
Typical Step Five: Allowance ($US 700-2000, 1-3 months)
About 70% of US applications are ultimately allowed. Usually the second communication from the examiner is an allowance -- but it may be another rejection, a rejection of some of the claims and allowance of others, etc. There are too many possibilities to list them all.
An Alternate Step Five: Publication
Patent applications are generally published 18 months after filing. In the
And then -- another wait
The USPTO has been speeding up the issuance process and now has a guarantee -- if it takes more than 4 months after the issue fee was paid to publish and issue the patent, the life of the patent may be extended to compensate for the delay.
Total: $5000-10,000 spread out over 2-3 years -- and that's just for
the
David
A. Kiewit
Registered Patent Agent
St. Petersburg
+1 (727) 866-0669 (voice/fax)
questions to: dak@patent-faq.com
Copyright 2002-2007 by David A. Kiewit
All rights reserved