HN Explorer

Ask HN: Why are patents so cheap?

3 points by jmole ↗ HN
Compared to the cost of drafting, litigation, etc., the actual filing fee for a patent is a ridiculously small sum of money. If the patent office has the obligation to review a patent with the same attention to detail as the authors themselves, why doesn't it cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to file a patent?

5 comments

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alexander2002
imo so that normal people can afford to patent not just the big guys which is one of the reasons the patent exist in the first place
dtagames
What costs is getting an attorney to write it in such a way as to see it awarded.

While in theory you can write your own (and file for the small fee), in practice your self-authored application won't be awarded a patent and your invention will become free public knowledge.

Nearly all parents are awarded to big companies with massive teams of lawyers. The "little guy" patent is mostly a myth.

GianFabien
It is not the patent filing fee that matters. It is the litigation costs when some entity willfully impinges upon your patent. Big companies can afford litigation and often cross-license patents.
dtagames
Very true. Some folks think that a patent implies some kind of "IP police" who will defend you. In reality, the patent only gives you the right to sue an infringer, a suit you must fund at your own expense. Meanwhile, the alleged infringement will continue unabated.

It's also true that most of the money that changes hands in patents is in these mass cross-licensing agreements, rather than in individual lawsuits which the patent pools try to prevent.