Best Patent Attorneys in Tustin, CA

A Utility Patent is a patent for an invention or discovery of any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof. The cost of a Utility Patent can range depending on the complexity of the invention, the average cost to prepare and file an application is between $5000 - $9000, not including government filing fees or post filing matters.

The Utility and Provisional patent applications can take about 2 - 3 weeks to prepare while the Design patent is an average of 2 weeks. Upon completing the draft application, we will send you the draft application along with instructions for the documents that require your review and signature. Once we receive the documents, your application will be filed within the week. We will send you a confirmation after filing and will keep you up to date on the status of your application.

For patent applications (mostly Utility patents) it is normal to receive an initial rejection, called an Office Action, from the examiner. In this case, we will notify you of the rejection and recommend next steps and let you know if any further fees are required. The cost to respond to an Office Action depends on the complexity of the initial application and the rejection we received.

Once the application is filed, the invention will be "patent pending," which means that nobody else will be able to file for this idea. Furthermore, marketing your product with "patent pending" will scare away most copycats. You will not be able to enforce the patent until it is granted, but most inventors begin working with manufacturers and selling the product at this stage. You may still wish to have suppliers sign an NDA for additional security.

Foreign filing is simply filing your patent or trademark application after the US application has been filed. We generally advise that you only file in countries where you plan to actually sell your product, especially since foreign filing can get rather expensive, and sometimes complicated. If you plan to file in European countries, it is advisable to file your patent with the EU, as it is a similar cost to individual countries, and covers a large region. Please note that the EU applications no longer include the UK.