If the U.S. filing is based on a Chinese priority document, the U.S. filing could be between $700-$2000, provided that the English translation is done in China and only reviewed by American side. The more time a U.S. patent attorney/agent spends on reviewing the specification and changing claims, the more expensive the cost will be.
Normally there are two Office Actions for a U.S. patent application. The response to each can be $2000-3000, depending on whether the American side substantially analyzes the cited prior art in the Office Action or the Chinese inventor provides the analysis on the prior art.
Also, the expenses such as fax, telephone, mail postage, drawings correction, etc., could be $800-1000.
Lastly, the U.S. official fees for a utility patent are $1517, including filing fee $462 and issue fees $1055, for a small entity. See detail at http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/qs/ope/fee2008october02.htm#issuance
In short, the cost estimate for filing a U.S. utility application could be between $7,017 and $10517. The cost difference is mainly due to the varied substantial work that American side may be involved.
P.S. The above cost estimate is only for electrical/electronic field; chemical/pharmaceutical cases may be more expensive. |
