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Comment by rogueriver | Hacker News Reader

1. My gripes with our patent, and trademark system comes down to fees.

2. I draft all my own patents(only 1), and found the process difficult, but doable. I also filed my own trademark.

3. I did have an issue with the filing fees. I contacted the offices involved and complained about the fees. I felt the fees might prevent many young inventors fron protecting their invention, or trademark.

4. They told me their was some programs for low income individuals, but I couldn't kind anything. The fees for filing a patent should be based on what a person makes?

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The fees are a deliberate barrier.

The patent office must get funding from somewhere. If the fees don't at least mostly cover their staffing and research needs then huge companies that file a lot become a huge financial burden on the taxpayer, and the taxpayer is then paying for a business advantage for these companies.

Obviously this sucks for the small inventor. I'm not sure how you get around it. The first X a year are free? But then the patents are always filed in individual names and then assigned to the company anyway, so I'm not sure that works.

While it's possible that too-low fees could hypothetically make the USPTO a drain on the federal balance sheet, it's currently a revenue source. [1]

And there's long been a separate (reduced) fee schedule for "small entities". And it's long been recognized those are still fairly high for situations like the lone-inventor, and such situations make up such a small slice of the USPTO's total revenue, that they certainly could be tweaked to be more accommodating without much net impact.

And because all that was well-known: The AIA included giving the USPTO some fee-setting authority. And one of their first proposals was to further reduce some small-entity fees and to create a new micro-entity status with commensurately-lower fees.

So it's not only a problem that would be fairly easy to address, without much adverse impact, it's actually already being addressed. (Though not really in-effect until later this year).

[1] Much ink has been spilt over the fact that the USPTO brings in more than it takes from the federal balance sheet, yet their budget has been left so low that they're chronically short on resources and thus backlogged.

Disclaimer: I am a former software engineer, now a patent attorney. But, I am not your lawyer, nor am I the lawyer for anyone who reads this. (Sorry, I have to say that).

Anyway, the USPTO has had 50% lowered fees for "small entities" for some time now. The patent office will soon add a new "micro entity" classification (paying 75% of fees) that might help individuals without a lot of money. The total filing cost as a micro entity will be just over 300 bucks. That's pretty reasonable considering the work involved in examining a patent application.

Thanks! I do think they could lower fees for individuals, but put a limit on the number of patents, or Trademarks a person could file--maybe just one at the reduced fee?

Corporations and LLC's would not get the discount.

I don't think their would be a rush of individual inventors overloading the department with frivilious, Nolo Press enabled patent requests.

Plus, if that became reality; they could drop the program.

If anyone reads this, avoid any patent service that advertises on t.v.. Research your patient before you hire a attorney, or DIY.

My main gripe was with the Tradmark fees. I don't remember the fee, but even if it was $300.00--that's still too high--especially for a www.mywebsite567.whatever?

I personally think the larger the company, the higher the fee. Didn't Apple try to patent rounded edges?

Anyway--I appreciate micro entity reduced fee info.

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