Trademarks do not have to be registered to obtain rights to prevent others from using the same or a similar trademark, but federal registration significantly enhances these rights in a trademark. You can claim exclusive rights to use your trademark, after you have searched the USPTO’s database to be certain that it is available, simply by putting the symbol ™ after your product name each and every time you use it. It costs nothing to do this and it provides notice to others of your claim to this trademark. It is not a federally registered trademark, however. A trademark registration can be obtained from both the state and federal governments. If a product/service is going to be sold across state lines . . . think Internet sales . . . then a federal trademark registration should be obtained. The cost for having a law firm prepare and prosecute a trademark registration application varies according to the number of classes in which the goods and services are to be registered. We were quoted prices averaging from $1,000 to $3,000 to obtain a federal trademark registration. But the cost can be higher depending upon the existence of similar trademarks. There are no maintenance fees for federal trademarks but federal trademark registrations must be renewed every ten years. Renewal cost at this time is around $500.
Archive for January, 2010
No matter what the initial fee is, you will not be required to come up with additional money until the first Office Action comes from the USPTO. This is not likely to occur for a year or longer, so you will have time to accumulate the money to pay for the response to that Office Action.
Your attorney’s or agent’s responses to the Office Actions will typically cost $2,500 for a response to the first Office Action and about $1,500 for a response to the second Office Action (if a second one is necessary). At this writing, the utility patent issue fee is $700 and your attorney or agent may add in his own fee for handling. Utility patents will have maintenance fees payable in six month windows which open at of 3 , 7 , and 11 years after the date the patent is granted, ranging from $450-$1,900 at this writing (based on which maintenance fee is being paid). Again, these are the USPTO fees and your attorney may charge a bit more for handling the payment of maintenance fees for you.
How do you determine what it will cost if you wish to hire a professional for your utility patent? We have obtained some ballpark ranges from several patent professionals to give you a feel for what your patent might cost. The cost of obtaining a good, strong utility patent can have a wide range, based on such variables as the complexity of the invention itself, the amount of prior art involved, and the number and complexity of the Office Action responses required. Each time you receive a letter from the patent office, taking some official action on your application, this is referred to as an Office Action. Obviously, if your invention is highly technical, it will require more of the patent professional’s time to write the application. If there are a large number of similar products or patents, it will likewise require more work to prepare the patent application. And, when the patent examiner returns the application for changes in the claims, there is a charge each time for handling the response.
Independent inventors, small businesses and non-profit organizations are entitled to what is known as small entity status. This qualifies you for reduced filing and maintenance fees, usually half of the cost for large entities.
If none of these resources will work for you there is one final option. If you have valuables such as jewelry, antiques or stocks that are not a part of your retirement portfolio, and you are willing to part with them in order to fund your invention, you can sell them. We would only recommend this course of action if you have no other. Exhaust all other possibilities before selling off your valuables.
You can see that while there is funding available for Shoestring Budget™ inventors, there is no magic panacea. It is, instead, a common sense approach to creative ways to fund your invention. You can help to make up for limited funds by careful planning and cautious use of your limited resources.
In addition to grants offered by inventor clubs or the Small Business Development Centers, there may be other grants for which you would qualify. The main libraries in each community have large books of grants. While grants are commonly offered for college and vocational schooling, some are simply offered to qualified applicants and attending school is not a requirement. Most of these grants are offered by private foundations and some of the grants are quite obscure. For example, there may be a grant offered for a female of Italian descent who is between the ages of 18 and 45. If you meet those requirements, however, it is often quite easy to get that particular grant. Not all of the grants are so specific. Some of them are for categories of people. An example of this would be a grant for offspring of military personnel, offspring of civil service workers, offspring of graduates of a particular college, offspring of people who work for specific companies, people of a specific religious faith or people who have parents who belong to a service club or religious club. The list goes on and on. There are literally thousands of grants that go unclaimed each year. The only way to find out if there might be a grant for which you would qualify is to actually go to the library and pore over the grant books.
Business communities across the country are beginning to recognize the value of independent inventors and offering research and development (R & D) money to inventors in a variety of ways. The Amarillo, Texas, inventor club has partnered with the Small Business Development Center and community leaders to establish a fund from which they award grants to deserving independent inventors. The State of Oregon also recently offered grants to deserving independent product developers. There are similar programs in other parts of the country. The availability and requirements for each of these programs varies from community to community. Contact your local inventor club or Small Business Development Center to see if such a program exists for inventors in your area.
Another potential professional partner is your prototype designer. Again, like the patent attorney and patent agent, this is something that is suggested to prototype designers with some regularity. Unless your invention is that one-in-a-million idea, your prototyper would probably prefer to be paid in money than to bet on the success of your invention.
Almost any professional whose services you will use in the development and marketing of your invention has the possibility of becoming a professional partner. If you choose to pursue this avenue, be cautious not to sign on too many professional partners. This is another area where you could find yourself in the position of becoming a minority investor/owner of your own invention.