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We do not wish to kill your dreams but we do want our clients to have realistic expectations regarding “becoming rich” by obtaining a patent.  Patents are expensive.    A patent does not give the patent owner the right to make a product.  A patent gives the patent owner the right to keep others from making a product.  Restated, one does not need a patent on a product to legally make and sell such product. Once an invention is used in public (non experimental use), one has 1 year to file a patent application or lose patent rights in the invention forever. Once an invention (that is ready for patenting) is offered for sale (or sold), one has a year to file a patent application or lose patent rights in the invention forever. Having an outside vendor make prototypes of an invention can qualify as an offer for sale ("back door sale") thereby starting the 1 year clock. Once an invention is described in a publically available printed publication in sufficient detail to allow one to make and use the invention, one has 1 year to file a patent application or lose patent rights in the invention forever. Once an invention is disclosed to another without a duty to keep confidential, one has 1 year to file a patent application or lose patent rights in the invention forever. For a non-provisional UTILITY patent application, should the USPTO award a patent, one can expect such event to occur about 3 years from the date of the first office visit.  Once a patent application is filed, one can put “Patent Pending” on their product and sell it while waiting the estimated 2.0 – 3.5 years for the USPTO to issue a patent. When all expenses are considered, one can easily have $4,000 to $5,000 (and more) in a UTILITY patent.  Below is the sequence of events and ESTIMATED associated costs for a non-provisional UTILITY patent application that leads to a patent after one office action notice of allowance (Design patents are less expensive and typically issue faster - about 1 year):   ----- FILING FEE n/a n/a $1,500 - $3,000(Our Fee) $ 2,500 (day of filing) Cost for filing a $550        (USPTO Fee) non-provisional application EVENT Time Total Time Cost(s) TOTAL COSTS Contract to file a non-provisional patent Application Day 1 0 Days 50% of FILING FEE $1,250 File Application Day 10 10 days 100% of FILING FEE $2,500 First USPTO Office Action 2 years 2 years; N/A N/A 6 months 6 months; 10 days; Respond to USPTO Office Action 3 months 2 years; $500 $3,000 9 months; 10 days; USPTO issues a Notice of Allowance 3 months 3 years; $1,300 $4,300 10 days; Issue Fee   ----- INVENTION PROMOTION COMPANIES:  While one bad apple does not necessarily spoil an entire barrel of apples, we believe one should consider the following information (please note that Simmons Patents has no way of knowing if the following statistics are typical):  There have been lawsuits filed against companies that help develop/promote inventions.      Consider these numbers from one such law suit taken from court records (the name of the invention promotion firm has been changed to “DELTA”  - if there is an invention promotion firm with the name “DELTA” such is by happenstance):  Over a period of 5 years: 45,709 inventors purchased a “PreDevelopment Agreement” (PDA) from DELTA costing $695.   Such $695 represented an initial investment.  Filing for patents and product design and prototype services were extra.  Of the 45,709 inventors that purchased the PDA, the total number of inventors that were able to sell/license their idea to a company was 282 (0.62% ---- restated, 99.4% failed to even get a license agreement). Of the 282 inventors that did get a license agreement, only 10 made more money in royalties than they paid to DELTA for their services (0.02% of the 45,709 made money; 99.98% failed to make money). Finally, assume one obtains a strong patent on a great idea and then a small company (not very well financed) decides to infringe such patent and make and sell the protected product.  The owner of such a patent must sue to stop the infringement.  Such a suit can easily cost $100,000 to 500,000 in the first 6 months in litigation fees.  What individual inventor has the money to defend a patent even if he/she has a valuable patent and product?  Additionally, while no one is judgment proof, many small companies and individuals are collection proof.  Thus, one can spend thousands of dollars obtaining a patent on a great idea, spend 100s of thousands of dollars suing an infringer and win and not be able to collect on the resulting judgment.  Such is why Simmons Patents will take cases on a contingency fee basis for a Simmons Patents client.  Typically, we can take your case up to trial with the client paying only $1,500 up front and expenses such as filing fees, travel expenses, and expert report fees. Link to Litigation Fees