I recently been getting interested in patenting a couple of ideas that I have. I did some research on the web via Google Patents and found that no one has invented what I'm trying to patent. How does one do to patent an idea. What is the process?

You'll need to talk to a patent attorney and get their help in filing the patent. Don't disclose the idea in a public forum (i.e. publish it) beforehand.

From somebody who has patented something (me), you'll need a few things:

• Technical drawings, diagrams, charts, etc


• Detailed technical descriptions explaining the diagrams


• A patent attorney


• Money to pay the attorney (and they're not cheap)

The best way to start the process is the talk to an attorney as they will guide you through all the requirements, tell you, in detail, what you need to submit and they will take care of all the other details for you.

Once you file the patent, you will become "patent pending." During that time, your patent may still be denied. It can take 4 years for it to finally go through. IIRC, it'll last 20 years.

To give some numbers on money...

Most patent attorneys charge roughly $200-$300 per hour, depending on a many factors. [NOTE for lawyer-haters: The money isn't their salary, it pays for their staff, employee benefits, building, computers, printers, toner, paper, etc., and then their salary.] If you have already done your homework and prepared your material (which you should), then the TOTAL attorney fees should be around $4000 - $6000 for the complete process. Note that there is no generic form for a patent, they are individually created documents.

You need to contact the attorney first, they will work with you to flesh out the idea, make sure you are getting the protections you want, and so on. This will take a few hours of lawyer time. They can tell you if you should go ahead, or if you should abort and save your money.

Next, a specialized firm will perform a search for prior art. This goes far beyond "research on the web via Google Patents". For a simple idea and just a US search, expect to pay around $500. For a complex idea or an international search, expect to pay more.

Then a patent application, abstract, description, etc., all need to be created by your lawyer. That is the bulk of the hours, accounting for most of the $4000-6000 mentioned above.

When it is complete, you get to pay an application fee and an image fee per sheet, which will total about $400-600 depending on the number of images and drawings you have.

Then you get to pay the Issue Fee of just under $700.


If they find any problems and make you resubmit, you'll need to pay a resubmission fee. Hopefully you did your homework.


Then you get your patent. Eventually. After a few years.

You have now spent about $6000-$8000, but you are the proud owner of a patent.



3.5 years later, you may pay a $490 maintenance fee, protecting it for the next 4 years.
At 7.5 years, if you paid earlier, you may pay a $1240 maintenance fee, protecting it for the next 4 years.
At 11.5 years, if you paid earlier, you may pay a $2055 maintenance fee, protecting it for the remaining 8.5 years. (20 years total.)

Also, in case anyone challenges your patent, you will want to keep all original notes/sketches/napkins relating to the invention, the address of where you lived at the time the sketches were made, and the names and addresses of any people that may have witnessed you performing the sketches at the time.

That's what my old employer made us do whenever we filled out an invention disclosure statement anyway...
[EDIT] sometimes they would also put half a dozen technical and legal people in a room for a day and make them try and find ways to break the patent, or find work-arounds for it, so they could strengthen the patent's wording before submission. I assume this is what your lawyer is for though, because patent wording is especially cryptic.

seems very different to the uk.

theres a patent form online on the government website you fill in and attach your pdfs to and it costs about £250 to process that which can take 4 years, im thinking of sending a few of my own off in the next few months

is there no diy alternative similar in the us?

Quote: Original post by Mantrid
seems very different to the uk.

theres a patent form online on the government website you fill in and attach your pdfs to and it costs about £250 to process that which can take 4 years, im thinking of sending a few of my own off in the next few months

is there no diy alternative similar in the us?

It is true that nothing prevents an individual from doing just that, if they want to.

While simple enough to read, patent documents are the most complex legal documents for their size. They must be extremely specific to exactly cover the invention. If they are too broad they will be thrown out in court, if they are too narrow they will not offer any protection. If there are any technical errors, no matter how small, they will not hold up in court. If there is any prior related work it must be identified and addressed within the patent, with technical descriptions of precisely how the invention differs from or makes use of those other works. If any related prior art is discovered that was not addressed in the patent, it can invalidate the patent.


If you assert the patent in the courts, a loss can cost you hundreds of times the investment money you "saved", plus you will lose protection of the invention. Any failure of the document makes the patent worthless. Therefore it is a sound investment to be sure the patent is solid. That work requires a patent lawyer and extensive prior-art search, which I mentioned above are the bulk of the cost.

On the other end, if somebody else claims your patent infringes on or overlaps theirs, they can assert their patent against you in the courts. In this situation you don't have the option of ignoring it. Unlike you asserting your rights, you cannot choose the "right" time and case to enforce them in the court. If they are correct that your patent is invalid or unlawful, the penalties can be severe.


The UK initial application cost of £250 is a bit more than the US cost of a patent application containing no technical images, and a bit less than an application with one sheet of technical images. So the application costs are similar. Once the patents are granted, both countries have issuance fees that are similar. The long-term maintenance costs are different, but not drastically so.


If you want to follow the DIY option just claim you have a patent, nothing is stopping you. With some homework and some luck it will make it through the application process. But the patent will almost certainly have flaws, and consequently be worthless at best, or extremely expensive to you in defense costs at worst.

The United States Patents & Trademarks Website has a great deal of free information regarding copyright, trademark and patent related information, forms, links and anything else regarding the subject.

As also mentioned above you can try looking through your local phone directory for a Patent Lawyer.

From what I understand, a patent on average cost about $3,000 USD and 2 years worth of propagation and investigation. Also please remember I'm not a lawyer in this field, I am just going off of past experiences.

Is a patent really worth it though, once you have a patent someone could easily just slightly modify your existing product and use it for their own personal gain. Not only that, but even if someone wants to directly infringe on your patent rights, you might not even have the power/finances to fight them in court.

A patent (in this modern era) is really only something good for large corporations and not meant for us common folk.