Hey everyone, would anyone know how much patenting things costs? I went to upsto.gov and I couldn't really find any specific information. Thanks everyone.

for a worldwide patent, far far too much, and it gets more each year

if it is american invension only and will only benefit people in America, you may want to just get a patent there and you may be lucky and get it for under 1k, but if it may benefit someone somewhere else, nothing is stopping them selling outside of america.

I recently looked for something for my company, and I am waiting as it looks like for all the individual things I want done, it will run to over 40k

ok, thanks, do you know why it's 40k? Thanks for the info!

Quote: Original post by sathenzar
ok, thanks, do you know why it's 40k? Thanks for the info!

From what I understand it's mostly doing the search to make sure your patent is infact a new and unique idea. That can be done online now, but still is very tedious.

There is also a lot in writing the patents. The wording they use and format they stick to isn't very intuitive, and it requires a lot of work to learn.

I know someone who has > 50 patents world wide (medical stuff, most of them in the US). The process of getting a patent is so expensive that he has actually been learning how to do it himself now to save a good chunk of change (which says a lot as you can immagine he's a very busy person). It's taken a LOT of work, and thats even with having lots expierience with them before trying to do them himeself (having been involved in so many).

about 2500$ for a international patent on the Swedish gouverments patent thingie.

800$ for EU only.

500$ for Sweden only.

Quote: Original post by sathenzar
Hey everyone, would anyone know how much patenting things costs? I went to upsto.gov and I couldn't really find any specific information. Thanks everyone.

Cost who? Cost you to patent, or cost the rest of us once you have?

And yes, I know what you meant.

If you have some patience and don't mind doing a lot of work on your own, you could patent it yourself. My dad successfully patented an invention of his a few years back using an earlier edition of this book for reference. His costs were much much less than $40,000.

150$ for the patent.
250$ for search fees.
100$ for examination fees.
700$ for issue fee.
450$ due after 3 years for reissuance.
130$ processing fee.

Bottom line it is roughly around 2000$ total to get a patent(plus lawyer fees if you get a lawyer). If you want to keep it after the 3.5 years you need to keep paying the fee of 450$ every 3.5 years. So to keep a patent for 10-30 years would add thousands on top of the 2000$.

Still nowhere near 40K as one person mentioned. Adding it to the international patent database is only another 300$.

It's worth adding, that if you issue a US patent, and it get's accepted, you have a certain period of time in which you can issue a world-wide patent, and have it accepted as well (assuming it's valid and no similar patent exists). This offers you time to issue a world-wide patent under the protection of your US patent. I'm not sure exactly how long you have, but I think it might be 3 years. Just FYI :).

Patent Fees for 2006

Yes, you can do it yourself, without a lawyer, for less than a grand to file, and a little more as noted in the prior post.

However, a PPA (provisional patent application) is currently $100, with a $50 processing fee. Perhaps a good idea to file a PPA first, then shop the idea around to determine if it's worth the effort to file an RPA (regular patent application). You have one year to follow up a PPA with an RPA (otherwise any public disclosure will make everything shown in public prior art, and not patentable).

Software patents are a sore issue with software developers (including myself, though I try to be pragmatic).

See also this thread on recent game/physics patents and applications: "Ghost Cars" in driving games are patented, as are "style Points". I'll continue to add links to the thread when I have free time.