STANDARD SCHEDULE OF TYPICAL ATTORNEY CHARGES AND GOVERNMENT FEES
FOR
USA INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW MATTERS
October 1, 2009 - September 30, 2010 (17th Revision. First published 1993-09-15)
THE BURDICK LAW FIRM
NOTES:
1. ---These are ESTIMATED MINIMUM fees. Your actual fee will probably be slightly higher due to the special complexities of your case, if any. (If you doubt that, check this higher fee schedule from another patent attorney http://www.connorspatentlaw.com/fee.html.) This burdlaw.com fee schedule is intended to assist you in estimating MINIMUM typical USA intellectual property fees. It is not the schedule for any particular case or firm, including our own, as most firms adjust their fees to stay competitive with other firms in pricing. High Volume clients get special pricing due to economies of scale and any additional complexity to the issues or technology raises fees. Please note that the OFFICIAL UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE FEES and/or OFFICIAL UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT OFFICE FEES incorporated in the fee schedule below are typically raised October 1 of each year by about 3%, so many US attorneys (me included) adjust their intellectual property schedules around that time to reflect new Government fees so fee schedules are only good for a limited period, usually about a year. If you have any doubt as to the accuracy of an official Government fee listed in the schedule, check the United States Patent and Trademark Office Official Fee Schedule (for patents and trademarks) or Copyright Office Official Fee Schedule (for copyrights). For example, most novices to trademarks are surprised that the Government fee for renewing a trademark (including a requisite affidavit of use) is $500 while it only costs as little as $275 to file the original application. Most novices to patents are surprised that an application can be filed for $110 (small entity provisional) but an 800 fee must be paid to have it issued and maintenance fees of up to $3000 are required. This is because the United States Patent and Trademark Office fees are rear end loaded to make those reaping financial reward through valuable issued patents and trademarks pay most of the fees so that initial filings are encouraged and actually subsidized.
2. ---These are TYPICAL MINIMUM fees for rough estimation purposes to help you spot cut-rate or inflated fees, which may indicate cut-rate quality or over-charging. High quality intellectual property legal work does not come cheap and good firms seldom cut fees below these minimums, because they know the minimum amount of time and expense required for quality performance of the various services they perform. Fees on individual matters may vary, particularly in patent cases, since the higher the technical complexity or more detailed the invention, the more attorney time is required for a good patent disclosure.
3.---Most firms, including ours, are willing to discuss, and in appropriate cases, enter into special fee arrangements with high volume customers or consider other special need situations. Some firms, including ours, do "pro bono publico" (for the good of the public, i.e. charity) work in limited amount. Many firms, including ours, are willing to discuss and enter into alternative billing formulations such as FLAT HOURLY FEES, FLAT FIXED FEES, CAPPED HOURLY FEES, FLOORED HOURLY FEES, CONTINGENT FEES, BARTERING ARRANGEMENTS, etc. Call or email if you are interested in alternative billing arrangements. Regardless of how billed, though, the MINIMUM fees are likely to be at least as high as those listed below. Generally, but not always, the larger the law firm the higher the minimum fees since large firms have bigger overhead due to fancy offices, more expensive equipment, more support staff and often time consuming office politics and communications. Also, smaller firms generally give better customer service to smaller clients while larger firms generally give better service to larger clients. We can explain why this is true although for most it will be self-evident.
3.---The official fees (in yellow below) are generally fixed and (except for PCT cases and except for claims fees) usually are not affected much by complexity, but the actual attorney fees (in turquoise below) will be much higher if the legal issues are unusual and/or technology issues are much more complex than minimum. For example a patent application on a new baby bottle costs only a fraction of what a patent application on a major pharmaceutical blockbuster or a major commercial software release costs because it requires only a fraction of the attorney time to prepare and does not require a patent attorney with a PhD whereas the pharmaceutical patent application might.
4. --- Most US Firms will be happy to give you a free initial consultation of up to about a half hour so they can meet you and determine how much work your situation might require and will gladly give fee estimates upon request after a review of your case information to determine what may be needed, so if a firm declines to do so there is a good chance the firm is either unqualified, overpriced or not very experienced.
5.--- Most US Firms give the initial consultation (a) in confidence to protect both you and the law firm and (b) for free or for a significantly reduced price to encourage new clients and (c) most do a preliminary conflict of interest check to determine if they must refuse your work due to a prior relationship with another client. The larger and older the firm, the more clients it will have had, so the more likely it is that the firm will decline your case due to a conflict.
MINIMUM CHARGES - TRADEMARKS
|
DESCRIPTION |
ATTORNEY |
OFFICIAL |
TOTAL |
|
Online Identity Search, wordmark, online identity , per mark, per class (included in application fee, if application filed) |
100 |
none |
100 |
|
Search, full, per mark, per class |
500 - 800 |
none |
500 - 800 |
|
US Application for registration, filed online, in one class (includes online identity search and description of goods and services in accordance with official US guidelines) Each additional class Surcharge for paper-only filing (not recommended, strongly discouraged , and only done if you insist) |
225
75 100 |
275
275 100 |
500
350 200 |
|
Claiming priority, per class |
100 |
|
100 |
|
Amendment
to Allege Use |
150 |
100 |
250 |
|
Request
Extension of Time to File |
150 |
150 |
300 |
|
Application for renewal (including affidavit of continuing use) - timely/late |
350/ 400 |
500/ 600 |
850 / 1000 |
|
Drawing up and filing a reply to an official action short/med/long |
125/250/500+* |
Varies (normally none) |
110-420+ gov. fee (if any) |
|
Negotiating
with an opponent prior to |
|
|
|
|
Affidavit
of Continuing Use |
150 |
100 |
250 |
|
Affidavit
of Incontestability |
150 |
200 |
350 |
|
Affidavit
of Continuing Use/Incontestability |
250 one class, plus 150 each additional class |
300 |
550 one class plus 450 each additional class |
|
Combined
Renewal and Affidavit of Continuing Use |
250 one class, plus 150 each additional class |
500 |
750 one class plus 650 each additional class |
|
Filing an opposition / cancellation |
840* |
300 |
1140* |
|
Additional
services rendered in handling |
200/hr |
? |
200/hr |
|
Recording of Power of Attorney (free if power is to our firm) |
75 |
none |
75 |
|
Request for Extension of Time to File Opposition (First) |
100* |
none |
100 |
|
Recording Assignment or Security Instrument(US) |
150 |
40 |
190 |
|
Recording Assignment of Security Instrument (Madrid) |
150 |
40 |
190 |
|
Recordal
of merger or change of name of |
150 |
40 |
190 |
|
Obtaining
priority certificates of |
75 |
30 |
105 |
|
Filing an administrative (ex parte) appeal against a refusal |
420* |
100 |
520 |
|
Taking
over prosecution of a trademark |
210 |
|
210 |
|
Notice of Opposition (per class) |
500 |
300 |
800 |
|
Petition for Cancellation (per class) |
500 |
300 |
800 |
|
Madrid Protocol Application |
300* |
varies |
varies |
|
* Hourly rate applies to items of complexity over minimum, such as where application is rejected by United States Patent and Trademark Office for other than simple technical reasons. |
|||
MINIMUM CHARGES - PATENTS
For a detailed explanation of patent fees from another firm (to verify the reasonableness of the fees quoted here) see http://www.ipwatchdog.com/patent/patent-attorney-fees-explained/
|
DESCRIPTION |
ATTORNEY |
OFFICIAL |
TOTAL |
|
Modifications to disclosure |
Hourly* |
-- |
Hourly* |
|
Patentability Search without Opinion |
400 |
|
400 |
|
Patentability Search with Opinion |
750 |
|
750 |
|
File US Provisional Patent Appl. (small / large entity) with disclosure as prepared by client |
500 min * (varies greatly with complexity) |
110 |
610* (varies greatly with complexity)* |
|
File US Provisional Patent Appl. (small / large entity) with disclosure prepared by attorney based on sketchy disclosure by client |
2000 min * (varies greatly with complexity) |
110 |
2110* (varies greatly with complexity)* |
|
File US Patent Appl. (small / large entity) Fee for each indep. claim over 3 Fee for each claim in excess of 20 |
3500 min.* (varies greatly with complexity) |
395/790 44/88 18/36 |
3,395/ 3,790* (varies greatly with complexity)* 44/88 18/36 |
|
Filing a PCT (Int'l) Patent application |
2,500* |
2,607+ |
5107+* |
|
Translation
of specification and claims |
|
|
|
|
Formal
drawings, per sheet |
120 |
|
120 |
|
Claiming Priority (with document) |
100' |
|
100' |
|
Late filing oath |
100 |
130 |
230 |
|
Filing an appeal and brief (small/large) |
1,000* |
890 / 445 |
1890*/1445* |
|
Reporting an Official action (minimum) |
150 |
|
150 |
|
Attend to minor official requirements |
100' |
|
100 |
|
Replying to an Official action (minimum) |
250* |
250* |
|
|
Requesting
extension of time: |
|
|
|
|
Notice of Appeal (minimum) |
100* |
340/170 |
440/270 |
|
Preparing and filing appeal brief |
750* |
340/170 |
840/670 |
|
Request for oral appeal hearing |
50 |
300/150 |
350/200 |
|
Final
steps of prosecution, pay issue fee, |
300 |
1,370/675 |
1,670 / 975 |
|
1st
Maintenance
(large/small) |
125 |
940/470 |
1065/595 2275/1200 3445/1785 |
|
Recordal of assignment of applied patent |
150 |
40 |
190 |
|
Recordal of assignment of granted patent |
150 |
40 |
190 |
|
On
receipt of Power of Attorney, ratifying |
|
|
|
|
Enter National stage, (PCT) - search done by EPO or JP |
500* |
1110/555 |
1610/1055* |
|
* Indicates that hourly rate applies to items over minimum. Note that for patent applications, the technical disclosure depends on the complexity of the invention. Most individuals have relatively simple disclosures, although there are exceptions, particularly in the chemical, medical, computer and biological fields. Most companies have more sophisticated disclosures such that the minimums are usually exceeded significantly. |
|||
MINIMUM CHARGES - DESIGN PATENTS
|
DESCRIPTION |
ATTORNEY |
OFFICIAL |
TOTAL |
|
Filing a Design Patent application |
650 |
175/350 |
825/1000 |
|
Responding to Official Action (typical) |
300 |
|
300 |
|
Formal
drawings, per sheet |
100 |
|
100 |
|
Claiming Priority ' |
50 |
|
50 |
|
Final
steps of prosecution, processing |
|
|
|
|
Recordal of assignment of applied design |
160 |
40 |
200 |
|
Recordal of assignment of granted design |
160 |
40 |
200 |
|
On
receipt of Power of Attorney, ratifying |
|
|
|
MINIMUM CHARGES - PROVISIONAL PATENT APPLICATIONS
Hourly Rate: Attorneys $150 - $350 / hr. + expenses Paralegals $ 60 - $ 120 / hr. + expenses
|
DESCRIPTION |
ATTORNEY |
OFFICIAL |
TOTAL |
|
Prepare
and file application using high quality client |
|
|
|
|
Prepare and file application using sparse disclosure (small/large entity) |
|
|
|
|
Additional charge for late filing of fee |
100 |
25/50 |
125/150 |
|
Modifications to disclosure |
Hourly* |
-- |
Hourly* |
|
* Indicates that hourly rate applies to items over minimum. Note that for patent applications, the technical disclosure depends on the complexity of the invention. Most individuals have relatively simple disclosures, although there are exceptions, particularly in the chemical, medical, computer and biological fields. Most companies have more sophisticated disclosures such that the minimums are usually exceeded significantly. |
|||
MINIMUM CHARGES FOR COPYRIGHT LAW WORK
|
DESCRIPTION |
ATTORNEY |
TOTAL |
|
|
Electronically (paperless) prepare and electronically file an application, when all information complete and received ready for filing, and forward filing particulars to you, and forward certificate to you Same but with paper filing |
150*
$175* |
35
$45 |
185*
$220* |
|
Electronically prepare and file application from information supplied, including docketing and forwarding filing particulars and certificate to you Same but with paper filing |
225*
$250 |
35
$45 |
$250*
$295 |
|
Record assignment or other document of title change (Prep of recordal cover sheet form) Preparation of most other copyright recordings is same as for assignment |
150 |
40 |
190 |
* Indicates that hourly rate applies to items over minimum.