Re: patent cost??

[ErikLBrown@aol.com]

Graham wrote:

>> 
>> >What do you think? I believe you've patented your own design, oomecs?
>> 
>> Yes.  At a cost of about US $12,000.00, with only a pittance of it 
actually 
>> going to the Patent Office.  (Do you guys write that as 12.000,00?)
>>
>How do you read that? Twelve THOUSAND dollars? I had no idea it was so
>expensive...
> 

Yup, that's twelve thousand dollars.  The expense will vary depending on the 
complexity of the patent, since almost all of it is for the lawyer's time.  
At around $100 and hour, it adds up.  Fortunately for me the patent attorney 
underestimated the complexity of the patent, or it would have cost me more.  
We spent about a day a week working on this for around six months as I 
remember.  However, he kept the bill within his original estimate.  The US 
Patent Office only charges around $600 for small entities like myself.  That 
also varies by the number of claims.  I had a lot of them.


>> > Is the
>> >license right to limit its applicability to the US only, on the grounds
>> >that US patents aren't valid elsewhere [clause 2.2]? That in itself would 
>> >seem to make it pretty pointless...
>> 
>> In the response you got from the person who wrote the license they 
mentioned
>> that the license is based on some current software they are dealing with.  
I
>> think that anyone wanting to use this license would list all the countries 
in
>> which they had a patent on the relevant technology.  
>> *snip*

>How does that work? Say I took a patented-in-the-US-only design and get
>it manufactured in the far east. Then presumably I can sell it anywhere in 
the
>world except the US? And who gets sued if someone bulk-buys from me and then
>tries to import them to the US? (sorry, showing my total ignorance here!)
>

My unlawyerly understanding is that the importer is subject to the lawsuit.  
The patentholder can also petition customs to seize the goods and hold them 
where they try to enter the country.  I think the importer then needs to try 
to prove that the product doesn't violate the patent, or settle with the 
patentholder, or stop trying to import the product.

I will add more thoughts to this and the submitted license either tonight 
(possible, but unlikely) or this weekend (probably tomorrow).

Erik