Thank you for considering our Firm to assist you in seeking patent protection for your invention. We appreciate the opportunity to be of assistance to you as you begin to investigate the procedures for obtaining patent and, perhaps, other legal protection for your invention.
The metes and bounds of any patent protection which might be obtained for your invention will, of course, be defined by the prior art (equivalent or similar devices) developed by others in the past.
A patentability/novelty search is generally the first step in determining whether your invention likely would be patentable. This search is conducted at the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office or one of its regional patent repositories. The results of that search will indicate (although not perfectly) whether your device(s) might be patentable. The results will also give us certain additional relevant information which is often of interest to us and our client. The fee charged will be based upon the scope of the effort required. Based upon our current workload, you should anticipate that it may take approximately 2 weeks to deliver to you the results of any given search.
Should your invention successfully pass the patentability search phase, you would have the option to proceed to seek patent protection. The total legal fees you might anticipate for that aspect of our effort is highly variable, depending upon the amount of time required to prosecute the matter before the U.S.P.T.O. In addition to patent attorney fees, additional charges will include the various costs and expenses associated with filing the application, drafting fees, and issuance fees. It is not uncommon to have invested several thousand dollars per application before the patent ultimately issues, although the range is quite variable depending upon your strategy, goals, and instructions to us. Based upon our typical workload, you should anticipate that it will take approximately 4-6 weeks to prepare the average application, including drawings, for filing. Patent Office statistics indicate average prosecution times of 18-24 months per application.
Generally, until a patent application is filed in Washington, you should keep your invention secret. If others must have access to your invention, you should insist upon their signing a non-disclosure agreement before giving them access to the invention. We can, of course, provide you with any such agreements you may require.
You should also carefully document each development in your inventive efforts. This documentation should be kept in a bound (that is, not a loose-leaf notebook) volume and entries should be made at, or very near, the time of your development. Each dated entry should be witnessed by one or more neutral witnesses or notary publics, after each has read and understood the relevant entry. Please feel free to consult us if you have any questions regarding the proper method of keeping your documentation. Although the above guidelines are not relevant in every case, you should consult us if you decide to vary at all the procedure outlined above.
Should you wish us to proceed with any searches on your behalf (or should you simply wish to consult with us generally), please contact us. We will be happy to schedule a complementary initial office consultation. Following that consultation, should you wish to retain this Firm, you should expect that we will prepare and mail to you our standard engagement agreement. Upon our receipt of your signed agreement and retainer fee, along with any relevant design documents and/or prototypes, we will proceed in accordance with your instructions.
We hope that this page addresses some of your questions and will serve as a future reference for some of the services rendered by our Firm. We would be delighted to speak with you at any time should you have additional questions. Again, thank you for your interest and we look forward to working with you!