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Consultation related questions

Should I have a consultation with a patent Agent/Attorney before paying online?

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Should I consult with Bay Area IP before paying online?

Of course, that depends on your situation and the service(s) you have in mind. However, generally, before contacting a Bay Area IP professional, you should try to find the information you are looking for in our rich, accessible website content, particularly our Frequently Asked Questions, Patent Information, and our downloadable Free inventor's guide. By answering your basic questions on our website first, it helps us get to your deeper questions, if any, and use the limited time communicating with us to your best advantage. There are three basic categories that most inventors fall in with respect to our services, which can be broken down in terms of how much you can afford or intend to invest for our services in protecting your idea, as follows:

1. $500 or less.

In this case, the decision is relatively strait forward as your options are limited to our Do-it-yourself PPA Kit, PPA email support, PPA Review, or PPA Revision service. Click here to decide which of these services is right for you. For most inventors, their question(s) will be answered here and can order the suitable "Patent Pending" service without contacting us, or requiring an initial consultation. However, if your questions are not answered here, then please email us your specific question that will help you decide. If you feel your case is too complex for email interaction, then you may want to procure an initial consultation at our special 50% off introductory rate.

2. $600 to $1500.

At this level of investment, initial consultations/invention evaluation are often required for many inventors to determine if their idea warrants a higher quality PPA, a Utility Patent Application, or to determine the complexity of the invention for purpose of selecting the appropriate flat-fee quote, if any. Before requesting an initial consultation, however, you should first determine if your invention is relatively simple or complex. If your idea is very simple (e.g., you could easily explain it to Grandma so she could quickly understand how make and use it herself), then you should decide if a PPA or a Utility Patent Application best serves your goals by CLICKING HERE. To fit in this budget category, however, ideas that are not relatively simple have to be filed as a PPA. If you decided on a PPA then next decision point is which PPA quality level is right for you [Click Here]. Another decision you need to make is how much are you willing to, or capable of, doing yourself. If you know exactly which of our services is a good fit (e.g., a Utility Patent, a quality oriented PPA, etc.) you can pay online to get the process started immediately. Otherwise, you may have a general idea of which services apply, but need to have answered some detailed questions particular to your situation. To help you sort out more advanced issues or just to get to know us a little better before making a relatively significant investment with us, we offer a special Free initial consultation.

3. $1500 or more.

The analysis is the same at this budget level as the previous ($600 to $1500) category above, except that it becomes much more difficult and important to correctly determine your optimal course of action (e.g., quality PPA or Utility) and the flat-fee category that your invention would be eligible for. After sorting out the basic considerations set forth in the previous ($600 to $1500) budget category above, you should take advantage of our special Free initial consultation offer.

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