Patent agent query

Mylargo

Hi
I was wondering does anyone have a ball-park figure for the fee a patent agent charges to help patent an item.
Cheers

pedronomix

if you are looking for worldwide protection think tens of thousands. Any of the agents wil quote you but it will depend of how much of the work you have done in technical terms and how much fall to them!!

Mylargo

Ouch just climbing off the floor. Thanks Pedronomix

averagejoe123

To file a preliminary application at the European Patent Office will cost you in the region of €1,500-€3,000 + VAT depending on the complexity of the spec and input required from the attorney. Keep in mind that you will have to pay annual renewal fees on an annual basis. These renewal fees range from €445 in the early years to €1,450.

The initial patent application will establish a priority date for your patent/invention. From this priority date you have 12 months to decide where you wish to nationalise the patent by ways of a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). This can be filed in a number of regions around the world. The most common PCTs filed in Ireland would be with the USA and Europe. The cost of this would be in the region of €8,000-€10,000 + VAT. If you decide to cover other regions eg Dhina & Japan, at the PCT stage the price will significantly increase.

Mylargo

Thanks for the information averagejoe123. This seems to be a very expensive business indeed.

kippy

Mylargo wrote: »

Thanks for the information averagejoe123. This seems to be a very expensive business indeed.

Makes it difficult for anyone but big business to patent anything really when you think of it.

Mylargo

Sadly that certainly seems to be the case kippy

What you should consider doing is making your product and testing the market with sales. If its as good as you think and worth patenting you should be able to sell enough to fund your patent costs. If you can't sell it in the first place its not worth patenting.
If your that worried the product will get copied, at least you can file a preliminary application for Ireland for 1500 euro (claim the VAT back). You have a grace period (6-12 months) before you have to file it for the rest of the world, which basically allows you to test your product on the market before going to the expense of filing a worldwide patent.

averagejoe123

Deleted User wrote: »

What you should consider doing is making your product and testing the market with sales. If its as good as you think and worth patenting you should be able to sell enough to fund your patent costs. If you can't sell it in the first place its not worth patenting.
If your that worried the product will get copied, at least you can file a preliminary application for Ireland for 1500 euro (claim the VAT back). You have a grace period (6-12 months) before you have to file it for the rest of the world, which basically allows you to test your product on the market before going to the expense of filing a worldwide patent.

You can't get a patent on something that been put into the public domain. i.e anything that is up for sale or has been advertised in trade journals. This is why many people on the dragons den will say that they have a patent pending status on their technology/invention. I would file a provisional application prior to disclosing any information.

averagejoe123

averagejoe123 wrote: »

You can't get a patent on something that been put into the public domain. i.e anything that is up for sale or has been advertised in trade journals. This is why many people on the dragons den will say that they have a patent pending status on their technology/invention. I would file a provisional application prior to disclosing any information.

In the US it can be in the public domain and for sale for up to a year before you have to file the application, seems there are different rules in each country though.

Mylargo

Thanks El Rifle for your advice and averagejoe123 for your warning

Mylargo

Hi averagejoe123
Is the fee for a provisional application the €60 fee that is on the Irish Patents Office website for a short-term patent?
Cheers

averagejoe123

Mylargo wrote: »

Hi averagejoe123
Is the fee for a provisional application the €60 fee that is on the Irish Patents Office website for a short-term patent?
Cheers

Yes this is the fee all right. These patents only have a shelf life of 10 years and have a limit of 5 claims per application. To the best of my knowledge very few of these are filed in Ireland as the official fee for filing a regular provisional application is €125. The bulk of the cost with both of these will be attorney fees. Different firms will charge different amounts for drafting the spec for each type of application but I would imagine the difference would be minimal for professional fees.

The short term applications limit the number of claims you can make about your innovation to 5 so if you need to include additional information I would recommend that a full application is made.

Should you go ahead with filing an application I would recommend opting to pay the renewal fees yourself directly. This will save you a lot over the patent term and now it can easily be done online.

Mylargo

averagejoe123
Thanks for your time and the advice, it's much appreciated

gargargar

We recently filed an initial patent application for some software in the US. Cost us around 1300 + VAT. We had to do a lot of the draft patent ourselves.

Mylargo

Thanks for info gargargar