How much time and money for a patent?

[LeMonte]

I was considering trying to get a patent for an idea I have. All I have is the idea, nothing more. What steps would I do to get this from idea to patent? What is the average cost of time and money in getting a patent?

[vangogh]

If all you have is the idea you're not ready for a patent. You can't patent an idea. Your first step is to build a prototype. Building a working model of your idea. How much that costs is hard to know, but it's going to be the most expensive part of the process. Here's a link to the US patent office showing what is patentable (http://www.uspto.gov/patents/resources/general_info_concerning_patents.jsp#heading-4).

Here's the more general link to the entire page about patents (http://www.uspto.gov/patents/resources/general_info_concerning_patents.jsp).

Filing for a patent won't cost much. I think it's around $100 or $150 to file. However, you'll probably want an attorney to help with the filing and that could run a couple grand.

First build a working model of your idea and read through the links to the patent office to understand whether or not the eventual thing you create from your idea is patentable.

Hope that helps.

[AJ123]

If you have a thought out design product and want to protect it from being copied ASAP you can file a provisional patent that basically puts a time stamp on your idea to the date it is filed. You will then have 12 months to file a non provisional patent application which is a "real" patent application. This 12 month period is what you should use to determine if your product is viable and worth spending the money on the full patent process. As far as cost, you will likely want to use a good patent attorney because good patent applications are complex and should include a very thorough patent search for prior art that you could be infringing upon. The cost will depend on the type of patent, the complexity of the investion and the attorney, but be prepared to spend @$2k for a provisional patent and $6-10k on a non provisional application. Your attorney may be able to use a lot of the provisional for the non provisional assuming the invention doesnt change much....so that could save some money on the non provisional.

Once you file a non provisional patent application it can take about a 18-24 months to even have your first office action (review) of your patent application. From there they may deny certain claims for any number of reasons and you and your attorney will need to respond and defend your claims. This back and forth is called the prosecution period and can get expensive depending on how much more work your attorney needs to do. It can also last a long time, even up to 1-2 or more years. The whole process is long and relatively expensive. Even though they are exensive, a good patent attorney is vital in my opinion and experience.

I hope that helps.