How much does a patent search cost?

Usually a patent costs $6000 to $10,000. Hire a competent patent drafting individually (attorney or agent).

There are two types of patent searches. There is a quick online keyword search, and there is more careful search performed by a professional searcher. You should start by performing your own keyword search using www.google.com/patents by putting in keywords in the familiar Google interface. If you do not find your idea but find some patents in the same field, you should make a note of the patent number because, if you file an application, you will have an obligation to submit to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office anything that may be relevant to examination. A professional search and opinion costs about $1500. No search is perfect because it is impossible to search every publication in every language in every country of the world. So you have to make a decision based on incomplete information and instinct.Be aware that most attorneys will only quote an estimated fee for preparing an application. You should consider the start-to-finish costs before starting. The fee for obtaining a patent depends on the complexity and the number of rejections received by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In a negotiation session, where the applicant tries to get broad coverage for a wide range of alternatives, and the Office tries to limit the applicant to one specific design, the Office routinely rejects everything and the applicant has to file amendments and responses in multiple rejection/response cycles until claims of a reasonable scope are allowed.The average legal fee for preparing a patent application on an invention of minimal complexity was $7879 in 2009. For relatively complex mechanical, the average fee was $9699. For electrical or software, $13,277. These are just averages. There is also a government filing fee of about $600 for a small entity.The average fee for each amendment/argument was $2322 for minimal complexity (rare) and $3135 for a difficult rejection for a mechanical case, $5021 for an electrical case. You should plan on about three of these rejection/response cycles, though it could take more. To reply a third time, a Request for Continued Examination and another government fee of about $600 is required. In some cases, if an examiner is being particularly difficult, an appeal may be advisable, and an average cost for a written appeal brief was $5547. If a Notice of Allowance is received, there will be an issuefee of about $1000 government fees for a small entity plus a $200 service fee for filling the forms and attending to allowance formalities.These are averages for the U.S. My fees tend to be a little lower than the averages even though I have 20 years of patent preparation and prosecution experience.If you would like a more precise quote, I would require a written disclosure and I can send an invention disclosure form for you to use.Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance. Unless I hear from you, I will assume that you are not proceeding with me. No attorney-client relationship exists until a representation agreement issigned and an advance fee is paid. Thank you again for your inquiry and best of luck with your project.