Since 1989 28 bench trials 9 jury trials 17 appeals 23 USPTO trial proceedings

(917) 297-9852

Ironclad PatentsLitigation-Tested Patent Drafting

Fees

How much does a patent cost?

"It depends" is a useless thing to hear when you're trying to budget — so here's what actually drives the number, what the USPTO charges on top, and the expenses that catch people off guard two years in. Every quote is flat-fee and given in writing before we start; submit an application and we'll give you a real number for your invention.

Our fees

Two tiers, both flat-fee

We quote a fixed fee in writing and you approve it before any work begins. If scope changes, we re-quote rather than surprise you. Hourly billing on drafting creates an incentive we'd rather not have.

Standard Filing

Submit an application for a quoteFlat attorney fee · USPTO fees separate

  • Invention disclosure interview with the attorney who drafts it
  • Prior art search and written patentability opinion
  • Complete specification and claim set
  • Formal drawings to USPTO standards
  • Inventor declaration, IDS, entity-status filings
  • Electronic filing and filing-receipt review
  • Full deadline docketing for the life of the matter

Right for: a first patent in an uncrowded field, or a primarily defensive filing where you don't expect to enforce.

Start your application

Litigation-Ready

Submit an application for a quoteFlat attorney fee · USPTO fees separate

  • Everything in Standard Filing, plus:
  • Claim-strength review — your claim set run against the standard invalidity theories under §§ 101, 102, 103, and 112
  • Tiered fallback claims — independently meaningful positions so one bad reference doesn't take the whole set
  • Competitor patent landscape mapped before drafting starts, so we know what we're drafting around
  • Freedom-to-operate flags on your actual product, while design changes are still cheap
  • Claim construction memo — how we expect each key term to be read, and why
  • Estoppel budget — every narrowing amendment priced against surrendered equivalents before we file it
  • Continuation strategy — a plan for keeping the family alive past first allowance

Right for: founders facing due diligence, companies in crowded fields, and anyone who expects to enforce.

Start your application

Which one do you need?

We'll tell you honestly, and it's often Standard. The premium tier only earns its cost when your patent is genuinely likely to be tested — we wrote out when you don't need it rather than leaving you to guess.

Everything else

Other work, same flat-fee approach

ServiceWhat it covers
Provisional application Filing date and patent pending status, drafted with the rigor of a full application because a thin provisional protects nothing.
Design patent Formal design drawings in all required views plus the single design claim.
Patentability search Prior art search plus written opinion. Credited toward your application if you proceed with us.
Freedom-to-operate analysis Whether your product can ship without infringing live claims. Scope depends on how crowded the field is.
Portfolio audit Your existing patents read against real invalidity and enforceability failure modes, with a fixable/not-fixable verdict on each.
Office action response Analysis of cited references, claim amendments, and legal argument — with the estoppel cost priced before we amend.
Examiner interview Preparation and conduct of an interview with the examiner, in person or by video.
Provisional → non-provisional conversion Expanding a provisional into a full application with formal claims and drawings.
PCT international application Preparation and filing of the PCT application. National phase entries quoted per country.
Appeal to the PTAB Appeal brief and supporting argument when prosecution reaches an impasse.

Every item above is quoted individually once we understand your matter — nothing here is a fixed rate. Submit an application and we'll give you a flat number in writing before any work begins.

Government fees

What the USPTO charges on top

These go to the government, not to us. The amount depends on your entity size — the single easiest lever on the cost of a patent.

Micro entity

The largest discount. Requires meeting gross-income limits and a cap on prior applications filed, or affiliation with an institution of higher education.

Lowest USPTO fee tier.

Small entity

Independent inventors, businesses with fewer than 500 employees, universities, and nonprofits. The most common status among our clients.

Reduced USPTO fee tier.

Large entity

Everyone else — typically companies of 500 or more employees, or applicants who have licensed rights to one.

Full undiscounted fees.

Get entity status right

Claiming a discount you don't qualify for isn't a minor paperwork error — it can render an issued patent unenforceable. Licensing rights to a large company can silently change your status mid-prosecution. We verify status at filing and revisit it whenever your business situation changes.

The USPTO fees you'll encounter

FeeWhen it's due
Provisional application filing feeAt provisional filing
Filing, search, and examination feesAt non-provisional filing
Excess claim feesAt filing, if over 20 total or 3 independent claims
Track One prioritized examination (optional)At filing, to compress examination to roughly a year
Extension of time feesOnly if a response deadline needs extending
Request for Continued Examination (RCE)If prosecution continues past a final rejection
Issue feeAfter a Notice of Allowance
Maintenance fees3.5, 7.5, and 11.5 years after issue — increasing each time

USPTO fee amounts change periodically. Current official amounts are published at uspto.gov. We confirm the current figures for your entity size in your written quote.

Budgeting

What actually drives the number

Technical complexity

A mechanical device with six parts takes far less drafting time than a distributed software system with a dozen interacting components and multiple claim types. Complexity affects the specification, the drawings, and the claim set at once.

How many embodiments you want covered

Broad, durable protection comes from describing variations — alternative materials, configurations, and methods. Each adds drafting time, and each makes the patent harder to design around. After Amgen, it's also what keeps a broad claim enabled. This is usually money well spent.

How examination goes

The biggest variable, and unpredictable at filing. An application allowed after a single office action costs thousands less than one requiring three rounds, an RCE, and an appeal. Examiners vary, art units vary, luck is real. A good prior art search up front is the best lever you have on this.

Foreign filing

Costs multiply per country — filing fees, translations, local agents, and separate prosecution in each. This is why we push hard on which countries genuinely matter to your business. For most clients the honest answer is one or two, not ten.

A realistic total

For a typical utility patent taken from filing through issue, most clients pay in stages as each phase begins — filing, then each office action response, then issuance — rather than as a single lump sum, which makes the total considerably easier to absorb than it might sound. Submit an application for a quote and we'll walk through a realistic number for your invention.

No obligation

Get a written quote for your invention

Describe what you've built and we'll come back with a flat fee for exactly the work you need, in the tier that actually fits — plus an honest opinion about whether the spend makes sense at all.

Request a quote Call (917) 297-9852