Did you get fries with that patent application?
September 12, 2010I have followed some discussions recently on social media about the cost of intellectual property protection. In the Internet age, a ridiculously low bidder will pop up.
Recently, LegalZoom has offered to file provisional patent applications for $309; i.e. Uncle Sam’s $110 filing fee and their charge of $199 for slapping the cover sheet on it and filing it for you.
Of course, LegalZoom sends you a printout in a nice folder that says LegalZoom on the front and that’s equivalent to the folders you can buy at Staples for the price of a nice birthday card. And, LegalZoom is kind enough to remind you in the small print that if you really need a lawyer, you’d better hire one.
Do you want fries with that?
I believe the general consensus demonstrates that a worthwhile patent application–which is essentially the first document in a lawsuit (a quote not original with me)–should take a minimum of 20-40 hours to complete, and those of experience in complex fields of chemistry, electronics, and biotechnology will certainly recognize that well prepared applications in those fields can and will require even more time.
As experienced practitioners further recognize, if you ever license or enforce your patent, the quality and contents of the initial application–including a provisional–will be carefully scrutinized in the US and Europe. In many cases, if the provisional falls, the US or EPO application (or eventual patent) will fall with it.
A $199 fee for 20 hours worth of work is, of course, ten dollars per hour; which represents a mere $2.75 over the current federal minimum wage. This raises the following question: why would an individual with an undergraduate degree in science or engineering, potentially a graduate degree in the same or related fields, an expensive law degree, and the overhead of operating a law practice write a patent application for the same wage as could be earned selling fast food?
Answer: there’s NO reason to draft a patent application for $10 (or less) an hour and in reality, no patent lawyer drafts applications for that fee to make a living. LegalZoom and equivalent services merely upload your content to the Patent Office, and then overcharge you for the privilege.
Law practice is demanding and difficult and carries a fair amount of responsibility and overhead, including the professional responsibility of handling another person’s (or corporation’s) significant IP resource in front of the US Patent Office and then potentially the Federal courts of the United States. Because of that, a certain portion of a professional fee is required simply to “break even” or “keep the lights on” or however you want to phrase it. Those costs exist even for small practitioners that leverage technology to reduce more conventional overhead. No reason exists for highly trained professionals to stick their necks out on your behalf for a fee that simply cannot be recouped.
Nobody needs to overpay for anything if they spend a little time investigating. Nevertheless, a patent application–even a provisional patent application–ought to be well drafted and carefully handled, and a serious inventor should be prepared and willing to pay for appropriate services.
Thus, if you get a patent application written for $199 dollars, make sure you get fries.
