It is not obligatory to do a search before filing. The main reason to do a search is to find out whether anyone else has already thought of the idea to be patented, and if so, whether the idea can be further developed into something that is novel. Doing a search and navigating around the prior art generally makes for a stronger patent application. One reason not to do a search would be to reduce the amount of prior art that you have to report to the patent office. If you don't know about it, you can't report it, but if you do, you are obliged to and the examiner will have the opportunity of holding it against the application. Another reason not to do a search would be that you are a world expert in your field, and have built up experience of what is already known. A third strategy would be to do a search about 11 months after filing a provisional application, but before filing a regular, or non-provisional application. This would expose more prior art than would have been publicly available at the time the provisional was filed. Using Valuetech to provide a good quality search for a single invention may cost about $1500-$1700.

Using Valuetech's agents, the cost to file a provisional patent, and by this we mean a decent application rather than doing little more than forwarding on your documents to the patent office, is typically $4500. The cost to file a non-provisional patent application is around $8500-$11000. The cost to file in additional English-speaking countries after the first non-provisional application is about $2000-$4000 per country, and $12000 in Europe. If filing in countries that require translation of the application into other languages, allow approximately another $2000-$3000 per translation. The cost to file a PCT application is around $12000-$15000. Please note, though, that long patent applications are likely to cost considerably more.

Costs are generally incurred at this stage, and can range from about $2000-$10000 depending on the complexity and number of arguments put forward by the examiner. These costs are mostly payable 3-4 years after the filing of the patent application, although a portion may be required in advance to formally request an examination. If a PCT application is filed, examination costs may need to be incurred for each country in which a patent is sought, but these costs are generally payable later than if applications were filed directly in each of the countries.

These are the costs paid to the patent office upon grant of the patent and to maintain it in force. Typically, you'd expect to pay $5000-$10000 over the life of the patent, for each country you have a patent in. The bulk of these costs are payable upon grant of the patent, but a small portion may be payable to maintain a patent application in force before it is actually granted.