Typical Timeline and Costs for the Patent Process
Hello, my name is Tim Maier. I am here to talk to you about timeline and costs for the patent process.
Generally speaking, the patent process can take from start to finish, meaning filing an application, to an allowance and issuing a patent, about two to four years. We’re seeing the back bump being reduced, meaning there are some outlying business method areas that can five years, six years if you were to appeal things. If you filed an accelerated examination application you can get things done in a shorter timeframe. From start to finish, maybe a year or less, it’s possible, more expensive, but possible.
As far as the cost goes, a typical non provisional utility application, whether it be a chemical, electrical, mechanical, business methods, or bio tech. We see most of our applications coming into $7,500 to $15,000 range if it’s a pioneering application that we’re drafting from scratch. Provisional’s can be done for less; it just depends on the subject matter. We draft applications anywhere for $3,000 to $9,000 or so typically. We can draft an application with omnibus claims and it reduces some of the time it takes us to draft the application, but we can take out most of the potential litigation pit falls from the provisional applications in that time frame.
So total cost you’re looking at. Let’s say you have one non provisional application on a mechanical type of device. You’ve got to draft and file the application, there will be USPTO fees all along the way, you file an assignment assigning ownership from you, an individual inventor, to your company, file at least one IDS expected lease form rejection, an office action and an attorney response with a personal interview. There are allowance issue and publication fees and maintenance fees after that. So from start of filing to issuance, the cost is anywhere from $12,000 to $18,000 depending on the circumstance. That is what we would typically see on a standard mechanical device type of application total cost and timeline about 3 years.
Thank you for listening. Have a good day.
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