3 Comments

1. I am a patent attorney with over 10 years of experience who also practices in a small firm and in a small state (NH) and I am always amazed when I read the amounts that large firms charge to prepare and file patent applications and amendments.

   First, I cannot remember any application of mine being a short as 10 pages. Even those of minimal complexity have many variations on what the invention could be and, becasue of this, even the most basic application will usually run 18 - 20 pages. For this type of application, I charge a fixed minumum fee of $[redacted], which equates to an hourly rate of between $175 and $300, depending upon whether I estimated correctly and worked as efficiently as I should have worked. As for amendments, I dont understand what is meant by minimal complexity, but $2200 is outrageous for an amendment that simply accepts what an examiner has indicatd to be allowable or amends the claims to overcome 112 rejections. These amendments should take no more than 3 hours to prepare and, even at NY law firm rates, shouldnt cost more than $1200.

   Perhaps the overhead for these larger firms is the culprit? When newly minted patent attorneys fresh from law school are being billed out at $400 per hour, I can understand why the cost of patent applications and amendments are so high.

   To me, the larger question is why companies dont shop around for these services. If a company is willing to pay $9K for a patent application or $2200 for an amendment and is not going to shop around, why should a firm charge less for it?

   Comment by Mike Persson — March 1, 2008 #

2. Mike,

   I am similarly situated, albeit in Iowa. I would guess our flat fees are similar, but you are a better man than me if your responses mainly revolve around accepting allowable claims and fixing 112 rejections.

   Most of my response time centers around 102 and 103 rejections. If I do not get one of these, I get pretty concerned I left something on the table. Even with these rejections, however, I rarely spend even half of the USPTO estimate on a response.

   I too am surprised more inventors are not outsourcing their patent work to Idaho, New Hampshire and Iowa. Over a decade ago, my first New York clients nearly did not hire me. They thought that my rates were so low, there must be something fishy.

   There is something fishy. Big city attorneys seem to be taking their outlandish overhead out on inventors. Thankfully, over the past several years, I am seeing more and more savvy inventors leveraging the Internet to find alternatives to the $400/hr fresh out of law school patent attorney.

   Brett

   Comment by Brett Trout — March 4, 2008 #

3. Brett,
   Thanks for your comment. I wanted to clarify that I didnt mean to say that my responses mainly revolve around 112 rejections. Rather, I intended that to be an example of what I would consider to be an amendment of minimal complexity. Most of my responses likewise revolve around 102 and 103 rejections and, like you, the cost for these types of response is usually half of the USPTO estimate.

   As for fixed fees, I just noticed that my minimum fee was redacted from my prior comment and apologize if I violated some rule of blog ettiquite by including it. I was just throwing it out for comparison with the high average fees quoted by the PTO.

   Mike

   Comment by Mike Persson — March 4, 2008 #

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