UTILITY PATENTS

I. Patentability Search
Our fee for conducting a patentability search is $450, which includes our initial conference, the patentability search, and the opinion letter. This fee must be paid in advance. Additional services, if required, will be billed to you at our regular hourly rate of $150 per hour plus out-of-pocket expenses incurred on your behalf. Filing without a patentability search, though possible, is not recommended.
Please appreciate that the scope of a patent search is necessarily confined by cost considerations. Therefore, while the search is calculated to give the best value for the money, the search could always, with additional funding, be extended into additional Patent Office classifications, the technical literature and foreign art databases. With additional funding, we could also run an "integrity check" of classifications to determine which references were missing from the appropriate files at the Patent Office so that these references could be located elsewhere.
Please also be advised that the scope of a patentability investigation is quite different from an infringement investigation and study, and the results of a patentabilitysearch should not be considered dispositive of all infringement questions.

II. Patent Application
Should you decide to file a patent application on your invention through this office, we can advise that the cost of a typical patent application is approximately:
Legal Fees: $2,000 - $4,000
Filing, Search and Examination Fees: $500 (small entity)
Drawings Fees: $125 per sheet
We accept major credit cards for the payment of all fees.
The legal fees would vary depending upon the technical complexity of the subject matter, the quality of the written description provided by the inventor, and the number of revisions of the application necessitated by the redefining of the invention by the inventor during the application drafting process. The government fees are subject to change. The total cost for filing the average patent application typically exceeds $2,500. Legal fees for preparing continuation-in-part applications, improvements over existing applications, are normally about 50 percent of new applications.
In addition, further costs are incurred during the course of the prosecution of the application, while it is "patent pending." The United States Patent and Trademark Office will issue an "Action" setting forth their findings as to patentability and, in the case the finding is negative, will require the Applicant to file a "Response." Usually, after one or two Responses, outstanding issues are resolved as to the form of the claims and the scope of protection. Each Response generally incurs $600 in legal fees. After allowance, and upon payment of an issue fee of $700 plus a $200 preparation fee, the application issues into a patent. Accordingly, fees and expenses typically are between about $3,400 and $6,000, depending upon the complexity of the rejection, the reasonableness of the Examiner, the closeness of the prior art as compared to the scope of patent protection desired by applicant, and the quality of the applicant's comments for responding to the Examiner. The period of prosecution, and the interval over which these added costs are incurred, averages one to two years. Maintenance fees are due at 3 1/2, 7 1/2, and 11 1/2 years after the issue date, and are presently $450, $1,150 and $ 1,900 respectively. The afore mentioned maintenance fees and are subject to change by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
You may be interested to note that licensing can take place any time after the application is filed. Some manufacturers prefer to license an invention while it is still in the patent pending stage.
Our office would require your express authorization to proceed with preparing the patent application, and we would require a non-refundable retainer, usually $2,000 concurrently with the authorization. The balance of the initial legal fee, filing fee and expenses are due when the application is executed by you for filing in the Patent Office. The prosecution fees and expenses will be billed to you at the time we do the work.

I. Trademark Search
We have found that the best method of evaluating whether to proceed with a trademark application is to conduct a trademark search in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Our Washington, D.C. associate will conduct a search for appropriately classified U.S. registrations and pending applications for registration which might be considered to be confusingly similar. Copies will be ordered for your records. We then review the search results and prepare an opinion letter indicating whether, in our opinion, the mark is registerable. Our search does not include unregistered marks and marks that are registered with the states only. However, these can be searched at additional cost. Our fee for conducting a trademark search is $500, which includes the search and opinion letter. This $500 fee is a non-refundable retainer, which must be paid in advance. If you wish to have a search made, provide me with a document identifying the specific trademark to be searched as well as the field of use.

II. The Trademark Application
Should you decide to have a search conducted and file a federal trademark application through this office, we can advise you that the cost of a typical trademark application is approximately:
Preparation of federal application: $750
Government filing fee for application: $325
Response to Office Action (if needed): $450
Preparation of Declaration of Use: $350
Government filing fee for declaration: $100
Our office requires payment of a non-refundable retainer of $625 to proceed with preparation of the trademark application. Also required are the date of first use of the trademark in interstate commerce and three specimens of the trademark. The balance of the initial filing fees and any additional out-of-pocket expenses such as trademark copies, postage, photocopies, long distance telephone charges, and drawing fees (if needed), are due when the application is executed by you for filing in the Patent and Trademark Office. The prosecution fees and expenses will be billed to you at the time we do the work. After allowance of the mark, this office will receive the Certificate of Registration. Upon payment of a $150 handling fee the Certificate of Registration will be mailed to the applicant.
In the foregoing we touched on some of the most important aspects of protecting an invention. It is highly recommended that you consult with a patent attorney at once in order to obtain detailed advice concerning your particular invention. If you wish to retain our office as your patent counsel, we would be pleased to meet with you at your convenience.