Dawn
I think you’ll find most of us to be reasonable and interested in doing our best for clients. I suspect you’re talking about reasonable in billing rates. If you want lower rates, you most likely will want a very small firm or solo agent practice where overhead is low and no law partners to feed.

If you don’t catch a decent recommendations from this forum, try the www.uspto.gov site and search the patent agent/attorney registry for your own geographic region..or do what a lot of inventors are doing: find a patent agent/attorney based near the USPTO so they can visit the examiner your behalf w/o adding travel costs to your bill. You also can check with your state bar for a referral.

In any case, ask your agent/attorney candidates for references…i.e., inventors the agent/attorney have represented in the past and be sure to call as many of those previous clients as you can. Ask them if they thought their agent/attorney was reasonable, easy to work with, interested in their invention and situation…or if they bill for every phone call, are argumentative, arrogant, un-reachable. Finally, if it’s important that your agent/attorney will permit you to stretch out payments over a few months, say so up front. Also, if it’s important that your agent/attorney has experience in your technical field, take a look at the results of a quick and dirty patent search and review the agent/attorney names that show up on patents that are reasonably similar to your own invention. I hope this helps. Good luck. dk

Hello Dawn….My patent agent is just fantastic. I use him for all my patents and his knowledge of patent stuff is just incredible and he has a great relationship with many in the USPTO always going there to discuss patents.

Two other people on this forum use him and I have referred him to a bunch others because he is so knowledgable and CHEAP. The low cost helped me with my patents. He charges $3500 and that includes the replies to the office actions. Usually you get hit with another big bill at the office actions.

Many times my agent Stan has taught me patent stuff that I used to actually teach a couple times patent attorneys. He also was able to get me my writing invention patent when a few patent attorneys did not think I would get it.

Private message me if you need more information.

Thanks guy’s,much appreciated!!

Ron, can u send me his info please? Thanks, dawnhuebner@hotmail.com

Don, So you do patents? can u email me? dawnhuebner@hotmail.com Thanks

Dawn
Yes,I “do” patents…applications, searches, consultations etc.
Registered patent agent; certified licensing professional; former
patent examiner etc. I’ll send you some info, including access
to a listing of all qualified patent “do-ers.” ;-)

You can search for an agent or attorney at the PTO web site. The specific page is:

https://oedci.uspto.gov/OEDCI/

Hello Dawn,
If you have the money, use an patent agent/attorney. If your broke follow my twitter page (inventodd).
I’m tweeting the whole patent process from a do it yourself, or Pro’se point of view. I’ve started with patent searching world wide, and showing page by page how to write a Utility Patent Application with all the links on the USPTO website. A work in progress. And writing your own patent application is alot of work.
Todd Bouton

Todd: Cute idea; but, in the process please don’t publically “tweet-out” your invention description…and don’t leave a trail of discoverable evidence that can haunt you later. Some things just can’t be tweeted. dk

Hi Don,
I can’t even read between the lines on this one. I’ll give you this though, the Public Pair system on the USPTO Website already made public all of the details of my invention, except for any trade secrets I decided not to include in my patent. It’s something they put in place to allow someone with a similar idea to dispute mine. I have a feeling your an agent or an attorney? If so, my tweet page is only from a Pro’se’s point of view. I can’t and won’t give any legal advice to any one, just some direction through the USPTO Websit links. Really, by the time I’m done with showing people page by page what I’ve done. They’ll see how much work an agent or attorney really does.

Todd: Your feeling is correct ~ I’m an admittedly nervous patent agent. My impression from your post was that you will be actively disclosing your private information (the essence of tweets)…but since your invention info is in a pregrant publication, there’s no sweat about that…also, anyone interested can log into the USPTO PUBLIC PAIR (patent appln info retrieval) system and read your exchanges with the patent examiner. Again, no sweat about that. I think its generous and honorable of you to let others share your on-going experience. It will be very educational…and clearly not legal advice. But there is some risk.

Just please don’t share/“tweet” more than what’s in the public record, for exammple in terms of: (1)your motives for making certain decisions (w/resp. to USPTO Office Actions) and (2)your level of understanding or confidence…and (3) any additional comments you wish to make about the patent references used by the Examiner…oh..and your reason for filing a “too late” response – if that were to happen. Good luck. dk

Ok Don, I’m impressed. I finally read your responses to Dawn in there entirety. Your also a former
patent examiner, very cool! Thank you very much for the heads up.
It’s funny how confident, but at the same time naive an inventor can be when chasing down a dream. I needed this speed bump. Thank you.
Todd

You’re quite welcome Todd. Thanks, but you’re the impressive one; I admire your energy and spirit. Good luck. dk

As stated in 35 US Code 154(a)(1), every patent contains “a grant to the patentee … of the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States…”. But read these words carefully. A patent is not, as many people believe, the right of an inventor to use his or her invention; it is the right of an inventor to exclude or prevent others from using the patented invention − the right to enforce the patent if patent infringement occurs.
Patent Infringement
Patent Enforcement

Hello,

Lynn

Actuete IP is a very good law firm which specializes in patent and trademark. They have some really good patent attorneys and trademark attorneys.

Hope it helps.

Hi,
Judging by your profile and company’s website, I’m assuming you’re looking for a patent attorney with software, Internet, web development experience? Whether you’re looking to help one of your clients or seeking to patent protection yourself, you have many options when it comes to cost. One way to manage limited resources is to consult with an experienced patent agent as opposed to a patent attorney. An experienced patent agent in your technical field may be more valuable than a patent attorney with limited knowledge of your area.

There are also many great patent attorneys that don’t work in a large firm with the large overhead and charge what you might consider reasonable rates.

Since you are in Chicago, one person I’d certainly suggest yo speak to is Peter Zura, great experience, and at the very least he may be able to steer you in the right direction.

Another good option would be Peter Haas on the West coast at www.flatfee-ip.com

Good luck,

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