I believe clients should know whenever possible, up front, what a service is going to cost. For these reasons, except in rare cases, I charge a flat fee for my services. Fees are determined after an initial consultation where I can assess the amount of work required on your case. Once I quote a cost, that is the amount you will pay for the agreed to services. I assume the risk for underestimating the amount of work. I encourage clients to talk with other potential attorneys and comparison shop for both the quality of service and the cost.
Fees are collected at the time of signing a retainer to do the work. Fees are held in a client trust account until the work or significant portions of the work are completed. If you choose to stop the work at any time, for any reason, the unused portion of the fees will be refunded. I will charge only for the amount of work completed. My charges are estimated at an hourly rate of $300 per hour. One reason fees are collected up front is that I strive to provide excellent service at a low cost. This requires a lean operation where non-value added work is minimized. Billing and collection of unpaid fees is non-value added work. I quote flat rates, assume the risk of underestimating the costs, collect up front, and pass the savings on to my clients in the form of low fees.
Bob, my associate, or I do all the work with few exceptions. Drafting drawings for a design patent frequently requires a professional draftsman. Filing a patent in another country requires representation in that country. I pass any fees for outside help on to the client with no mark-up.
Initial Consultation: Free.
A one – hour phone conversation to determine the nature and scope of your legal needs.
Utility Patent:
Fees depend upon application type and number of applications filed if multiple countries. Government fees can be as low as $130 for small entity provisional to several thousands for multiple international applications. Foreign filing requires we hire an attorney in the filing country.
Fees include the costs to research, draft and file a patent application. The same application can be used for a US provisional, US non-provisional, Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) or a foreign application (after translation). Normally revision of drawings is included in this fee. This fee is for the initial filing of the application. Typically there will be additional attorney fees of perhaps $2000 in responding to office actions during prosecution of the application. These will occur approximately 2 years after the initial application.
Design Patent:
Research, draft and file a design patent application. Most of the work on a design patent application is in the drawings. I use a professional draftsman to prepare the drawings.
