Turning Ideas Into Patents

____Design Costs_____

Design Application -          Estimated Time Line and Costs Design patents cover the look or appearance of a product. The total cost to obtain this type of patent is $2,500 to $3,000 for small entity filing. It normally takes about 60 days have the application “Patent Pending”. This type of patent usually takes 15 to 30 months to issue. The current small entity filing fee for this type of application is $220.The schedule below provides an estimate of the entire process from initial consultation until the patent expires 14 years after it issues.

Docket Rocket The US patent office provides for accellerated examination of Design Applications. The fee for accellerated design applications is $900. You should budget an additional $400 to $800 for preparation of the documentation to file the Docket Rocket.

Design Patent Description of Event               1. Meeting with client, product disclosed. Retainer Paid 2. Application written and sent to client with billing 3. Application returned with signatures and payment 4. Application mailed to PTO 5. Application "Pending" copies and billing sent to client 6. Information disclosure statement copies sent to client 7. First office action from PTO 8. First office action copies sent to client 9. Reply to first office action sent to PTO 10. Reply to first office action sent to client bill to client 11. Patent Approved with Notice of Allowance 12. Copies to client with bill for issue & publication fee 13. Payment and client authorization, Documents to PTO 14. Patent issues and sent to client                                                                                   Budgetary Cost

Time Est. Day 0 Day 45 Day 50 Day 55 Day 60 Month 6 Month 18 Month 19 Month 20 Month 21 Month 24 Month 25 Month 26 Month 28

Cost $1,000 $1,000 $500 $500 _______ $3,000