I am also a patent attorney. Before you consider getting a patent you should seriously consider whether getting a patent is even necessary and whether it is feasible. Afterwards, I would strongly recommend that you do an exhaustive market research conducted by yourself (as opposed to other market research firms from invention submission corporations. And after you have cleared those steps you should know that getting a patent will cost somewhere between $4,000 up to $20,000 just for filing the application through a patent attorney. The filing fees are currently $545 and the issue fee is a little over $1,000. Also, you should know that the patent process requires a lot of patience: on average between 18-36 months or more. You can find more information on my website at the Los Angeles Patent Attorney. ---This post was edited to remove a commercial link. Read our discussion policies for more Community best practices.

As a patent attorney myself perhaps I can be of help.  In a nutshell, a patent application will cost $5-8000.  Over the next three years after filing the application, you should expect to spend another $3-4000.  That includes gov't fees.  This amount will vary depending on what law firm you use.  I recommend you use a local guy.  Preferably a young guy trying to build a practice who will be willing to spend extra time working with you for minimum fees.  Big firms don't typically want to bother with little guys like you.   There are lots of ways to cut corners, such as filing your own provisional with legalzoom or one of the other programs, but if you're going to file your own application, why spend money on legalzoom?  Just go to www.uspto.gov and download the forms and instructions there.  However, you will eventually need an attorney, so the cost savings is only temporary.

Hello Irwin, I used Legal Zoom for my 'Provisional Patent' research and all was less than $1000. This type of patent is only good for a year. You can go to the us patent office web site by googling us patent office. good luck.

I recommend you visit the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's FY 2009 Fee Schedule, which details the current costs for filing a patent. It is updated regularly. A good place to start finding out about the patents is the Patents, Trademarks and Copyright guide, which provides a listing of key resources on the patent filing process.

Welcome to the Business.gov Community! Look here for information about the cost of obtaining a patent. Let us know if this is helpful and/or if you find additional resources to share.

I too believe you should do some very good market researcha nd then I would definitely recommend contacting a Los Angeles Attorney or Lawyer to ask questions regarding this situation. I think sbbarca has some great information. Take care

Hello, firstly you need to determine what countries you are wanting to get your patent recognized in. The more countries you want it to be in, the more cumaltive costs you are looking at. If you are located in the United States and only want to patent in the USA the costs flucuate. If you deal with a Law Firm where they do the majority of the work, I have talked to many firms and hey cost ranges from 5 to 10 thousand dollars. If you are intellectually pre-disposed I would fill the majority of the patent application out yourself and then hire a lawyer for 2 or 5 hours to go over it with you and fix the problematic areas. A small fact on patent applications, once you submit a patent application you cannot revise or delete content on it, unless you pay a large fee. Thats why it is smart if you do it yourself, that you do it right the first time. If you do not have 5 to 10 thousand to throw around and want to do it the cost effective route, its essential that you book a lawyer for a few hours with a professional patent experience to go over it with you and iron out any kinks. The application itself is less then a thousand dollars

I'm an attorney but not a patent attorney and here's my advice. Get a good patent prosecutor/attorney. Patents are complicated and could take a very lengthy amount of time to attain. You need someone who specializes in patents. Also, it can be an expensive process, depending on how complicated the invention is and how many times the patent office rejects the application before they finally accept it. fyi -- patents are often rejected several times by the office and you are forced to modify the app and resend it, and it may get approved afterward. My point is don't sacrifice quality of representation for a discount in this area. Also, my personal opinion is that you should not look into things like legal zoom for things like patents. Good Luck!

Also, for more information on fees and other information about Patent Attorneys you can find some solid information on the Lawyer Patent Trademark Copyright Attorney site. http://www.ideastolegacies.com/ Los Angeles Attorney Lawyer Website Also, if you're interested in Trademarks and copyrights, you can go to the trademark patent copyright patent site message-edit-history'>Message Edited by sbbarca on 06-13-2009 08:01 PM Message Edited by sbbarca on 06-13-2009 08:17 PM Message Edited by NicoleD on 06-18-2009 01:02 PM