We offer all our customers free advice and assistance on all cost issues. Our goal is not to count every minute of our time, but to build strong, long-term, professional and mutually beneficial business relationships. Rob is a senior cost lawyer in practice to ensure that all employees meet the high professional standards and personal touch that have driven business growth and ensured stability during periods of significant changes in legal fees. Rowan Legal Costs Ltd, formerly Rowan Law Costs Draftsmen, was founded in 2002 by Rob Rowan. Rob began his career in legal fees in the late 1980s, shortly after the changes brought about by the introduction of CBC Order 62 and the abandonment of county court fixed/progressive costs. About 25 years later, he now sees how the circle closes to fixed costs. It is obviously true that if you wait long enough, everything will come back into fashion. We do not follow the factory/production line model of some companies with higher costs. We are proud that most of our clients have been with us for many years because of our personal approach and detailed knowledge of their daily practices and preferences. Many cost-leading companies have shifted from legal aid to the more lucrative IP/commercial litigation costs business due to their increasingly low profitability. However, we currently devote a significant portion of our resources to legal aid and will continue to do so. In our view, recent changes and tightening of legal aid costs mean that legal aid lawyers need cost support and advice more than ever in order to remain profitable.
Avocados are expensive. Even most lawyers would agree. It`s not uncommon to hear budgeting advice like, “Take what your lawyer just quoted and double it.” What for? How can one miss an estimate not of 10%, not 50%, but of 100%?! Unfortunately, unlike other services, legal services are not entirely under the control of a lawyer. For example, a painter may paint a wall without his work being approved and endorsed by a 3rd party (except perhaps the person who hired the painter). Thus, the painter in charge of painting a wall knows that the cost is only the number of hours worked and the purchase of accessories. Compare this to a patent attorney tasked with having a patent application approved by the United States Patent Office (USPTO). The patent attorney knows how much it should cost, but since he/she is at the mercy of the 3rd party approval (the USPTO), the patent attorney can never be sure how much it will cost. Draft patent application – The tip of the iceberg When filing a patent, the first step is to draft the patent application, which typically costs between $8,000 and $15,000. Unfortunately, these upfront costs are often just the tip of the iceberg. The USPTO`s project submission and approval process can often be more expensive than the design and is not included in a company`s design estimate.
Patent Granting Procedure – Additional Costs Abound The approval process, known as prosecution, accounts for most of the additional costs. These additional costs come in the form of a series of lawsuits filed by the USPTO Office and Office responses filed by your patent attorney. During processing, most patent applications receive about three official acts, but some can be done with much more. How Administrative Actions Work – The first action of the USPTO Office is usually a non-final response. You have the option to respond to the Office`s complaint without having to pay a fee to the USPTO, but patent attorneys charge per hour for preparing the response ($$$), which is your first additional expense, which is usually not included in the estimate. If the USPTO reviewer doesn`t find the answer convincing, you`ll get another Office action called the last Office action. To do this, your lawyer must prepare another answer ($$+). Some examiners allow a response after the Agency`s final decision, but a Request for Further Examination (RCT) is usually required. The NCE filing fee is often higher than the initial application filing fee ($$) and patent attorneys typically charge a fee for preparing a response to the NCE! Other times, you pay the hourly wage ($$$). So if a patent attorney gives an answer that the examiner doesn`t find convincing after the non-final official act, then the cost of pursuing your patent has just doubled! There is your 100%. If the response with the RCE isn`t convincing either, you might get another Office action and the dance will continue until the USPTO finally clears the request or you decide to leave and go home. Therefore, the actual cost of obtaining a patent during the prosecution is taken into account and may be several times higher than the initial estimate for drafting and filing your patent application.
Take steps to limit the Agency`s actions The approval of the USPTO is not entirely arbitrary. This allows for an application to be drafted and responded strategically to ensure that an NCE is never required. An experienced patent professional can be quite sure of how a patent examiner will react to a particular request and the most convincing arguments. At TurboPatent, we`ve gone one step further, and in addition to our experience, we use our trained AI model to simulate and predict how an examiner would react to the filings we write and the arguments we make before filing (i.e. before you have to pay). It makes a big difference. The USPTO average is about 2.5 Agency shares per right (meaning an NCE was required), while TurboPatent averages less than 2 Agency shares per right (meaning there is no NCE). We also offer fixed (not hourly) pricing so you can understand the true cost of responding to Office actions.