
Filing a provisional patent -- a lawyer tells me $5,000. - rms

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Leonidas
For those of you who are still in school, especially in graduate school and
want to obtain free law advice..I would suggest you go to the law school.

Most law schools will provide their students free advice about everything and
will help you as long as you're a student. At my school, they will help you do
paper work and find proper paper work to fit your needs. Granted you will be
working with 3rd year law students, those 3rd year law students are managed by
the law professors. Besides, it will give you an excuse to network with some
lawyers. It's always a good thing to know good lawyers.

Call the law school up or email them to see if they have a program like that
for students. You have to pump your resources to the maximus while you're a
student because once you graduate, advice costs.

Cheerios

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chandrab
I've done a lot of patent filings, A good provisional looks like a real patent
and can be turned into a patent with little hassle and not much more expense.
The downside is that there is a lot more work for the lawyer to create a good
provisional. A $200 provisional is a joke (just look at the form) and not
worth the paper is written on...you need to have a lawyer spend time writing
it up properly (esp. the claims). I'm not $5000 is the right price either
though. In comparison a full patent filing will cost $15K from a good firm.

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rms
So a lawyer tells me $5,000. Google Adwords says as little as $200. Is it
better to do it myself or get a cheapie provisional patent online? Can I hurt
my chances of a full patent if my provisional patent isn't any good?

<http://www.patent-patent.com/> has a $199 provisional patent service. Bad
idea?

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pixcavator
No-one actually reads provisional applications. Just write up everything
you've got, include disks etc, and send it to PTO - pay only $100 fee.

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rms
But lets say that I want to have more information, more inventions, even, in
the final patent. Am I limited at all by the corresponding provisional patent
or is it irrelevant?

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pixcavator
As far as I understand, your provisional patent will come into play only if a
priority issue arises. For example, someone files a related patent after your
provisional but before your full application. That's the way my lawyer
explained it to me.

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staunch
Patents are for boosting your valuation during funding/acquisition. Not doing
either? Why not just keep it a trade secret.

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whacked_new
check out nolo.com (no affiliation). I bought the patent book. If anything,
it's cheaper than $200.

