Entrepreneurship

Did you know that . . . 

• It takes approximately 24 months to register a patent in the U.S. - from initial filing to when the patent is granted.

• The USPTO has approximately 8,000 Patent Examiners on staff.

• There is a backlog of approximately 500,000 unexamined patent applications.  For more information, please visit the USPTO Patent Data Visualization Dashboard. 

• The cost of applying for a non-provisional patent can be the following:

  • For a mechanical tool can be $12,000

  • For an electronic product can be $14,000

  • For a computer implemented method for facilitating certain functionality via the Internet can be $20,000- $23,000

  • In addition, other cost include office actions, issuance and maintenance fees 

From: Quinn, Gene (2015/04/15) Cost of Obtaining a Patent Retrieved from http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2015/04/04/the-cost-of-obtaining-a-patent-in-the-us/id=56485/ 

. . . so the sooner you get started on your patent application research, the better!

If you intend to make, use, or sell an invention of yours, you should find out whether someone else has created something like it already. You have a number of options when it comes to searching for patents. Below are some patent searching sites.