Why Us

We’re PhD qualified, working mostly from home-based offices or our clients' premises. Your money is spent more on brainwork than overheads. We will help you as much or as little as you wish, according to the level of help that you need and your budget. We can undertake the work ourselves or we can offer you guidance if you are doing the majority of work yourself.

Patent Search

A thorough patent search is always recommended before filing a regular or even provisional patent application, to make sure that you're not trying to patent something which already exists.

Patent Drafting

Valuetech's patent agents can draft your patent application or edit or review your own draft. We contribute to the thought process by brainstorming with you, so that as many variations of the invention as possible are included.

Cost – Non-Provisional

There are four stages of cost when it comes to filing a non-provisional (i.e. regular) patent application. These are patent filing, patent examination, patent grant and then maintenance of the patent.

Filing: For a small to average Canadian or US regular patent application it will cost $8,000 - $10,000 to draft and file for a small entity.

Examination: About 2-3 years after patent filing, it will usually cost $2,000-$10,000 during examination.

Patent grant: When the examiner has decided to allow a patent to be granted, a fee of about $1000-$2000 is required.

Maintenance: To maintain the government granted monopoly throughout the term of the patent, about $5,000 - $10,000 of maintenance fees are payable throughout the life of the patent.

Cost – Provisional

A provisional patent application may be filed for $4,000-$5,000. It will expire one year later, so a regular, non-provisional patent application or PCT application should be filed within the year.

Cost – PCT

A small to average PCT application for patents may be filed for about $12,000-$15,000. Within 30 months from filing, the PCT application should be taken into each country where a patent is sought, with the costs for each being in the ballpark of those described above.

Patent Strategies

1. For the organized: File a regular application. You know exactly what your invention is and all the possible variations. You have the time for a quality patent application to be prepared.
2. For the spendthrift: File a provisional patent application. Depending on how the business goes, file a non-provisional patent application within a year.
3. For the impatient: File a regular patent application and pay the additional fee for expediting examination of the patent. This can speed up the grant of a patent from about 3 years to less than 1 year.
4. For those in panic: You have an invention that you need to publicize in the next few days, either at a trade show or to a group of investors. File a provisional application, followed by a regular, non-provisional patent application.
5. For doubtful inventions: File a regular application in the US. This is the easiest jurisdiction in which to obtain a patent.
6. The world is your oyster: File a PCT application as the first step to receiving patent protection in several countries.

About Us

Valuetech is a company of patent experts with PhD level training in either the physical sciences or engineering. We are based in Vancouver and Richmond BC, Canada, and have clients in several countries around the world, including the US, UK, Belgium, Netherlands and China. Since 2001 we have served the cost-conscious high-tech community by providing an alternate both to having a full-time in-house employee and to relying entirely on an external patent agent. Our clients range from individual inventors with an entrepreneurial spirit, through small to medium companies with ongoing product introduction and expanding patent portfolios, to the well established Fortune 500.

Contact

To learn more about our services please visit our main website or give us a call.

Tel. +1 604 781 4825