USPTO Patent Fees

Patent Fees Due to the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO)

Have you ever wondered how the patent office makes money?  After all, how can they afford to examine and approve the thousands of patents that get issued every year?  Well, the USPTO charges fees for filing, issuing and maintaining a patent.  In addition to these more common fees, other fees may be assessed such as reissuance fees, extension fees, acceleration fees etc.  To keep things as simple as possible, we’ve outlined the more typical patent related fees that the USPTO charges inventors.
The entire USPTO Fee Schedule is available here: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/qs/ope/fee010114.htm

The fees vary depending upon your entity status when you file for your patent.  Most individual inventors will qualify as “Micro Entity” status.  In order to determine whether you qualify as a “Micro-Entity,” please refer to the charts below.