how does a patent attorney charge?
Asking beforehand avoids disputes afterwards
A patent attorney is not governed by fixed rates and can decide what financial agreement he/she reaches with you. It is best to do this during your initial meeting together.
Asking beforehand avoids disputes afterwards. You should therefore ask your patent attorney during the initial meeting to give an estimate of the costs and for an explanation and written confirmation of the billing system that he/she will apply in your case.
It is often difficult to give an accurate estimate of the costs in advance. How a case develops depends on many uncertain factors. It can therefore happen that your patent attorney needs to spend more time on it than he/she initially thought. He/she should inform you as the case proceeds about additional work and rising costs. If a case takes a long time, ask your patent attorney to inform you regularly about the financial position or to send you interim bills. This will help you keep track of costs.
The bill that you receive from a patent attorney generally also includes other cost items such as costs charged by foreign agents (patent attorneys), costs charged by the authorities such as submission costs, the payment of granting, investigation and country fees, maintenance fees and general overheads. You can ask your patent attorney to provide an itemised bill.
Common forms of billing
1. On the basis of an hourly rate
Number of hours x hourly rate
The cost is calculated by multiplying the number of hours that the patent attorney spends on the case by the hourly rate. An office can apply a fixed hourly rate or different rates for each type of patent attorney, depending on their experience and training. The level of the hourly rate can also be (partly) dependent on the urgency of the case, the required expertise, the nature of the case, its significance or other factors.
2. Fixed fee
The client agrees a fixed total fee with the patent attorney in advance.
3. Annual contract/blanket agreement
With this type of agreement the client is usually a business which expects to have a number of cases to be handled by the same office. The two parties make agreements about rates and factors which will play a role in determining the level of the bills.
4. Other methods
Other methods or a combination of the methods listed above are also possible, provided that they do not conflict with the code of conduct which applies to the patent attorney.
5. ‘No cure no pay' is not permitted
In other countries attorneys are sometimes only paid for their work if they win the case. This system is known as 'no cure no pay'. This system is not permitted for patent attorneys in the Netherlands.
