how to start

A FAQ/Help Guide to Selecting Our Services

Steps in Attaining a Utility, or Full, Patent Application
Steps in Attaining a Provisional Patent Application

Quality Oriented Provisional Patents
Low-cost Oriented Provisional Patents

Requesting an IP (e.g., patent or Trademark) search
Consulting Services
Becoming a client of the firm
Disclosure meeting

Obtaining a Patent (full Utility) Application

The suggested steps towards obtaining a Patent (full Utility) application with Bay Area IP are as follows:

Read our FAQ guide to our Full Patent Application services.
It is often helpful if you perform your own prior-art search and look for patents and printed publications, which seem to be similar to your invention.
If your confidence is not high enough and it is within your budget, it is often helpful for you have us perform a patentability search for you.
Request a Quote
If Bay Area IP accepts you as a client, we will provide you with a written quote for the patent services you seek.
Upon the appropriate retainer payment being honored, we will email you payment confirmation and provide you with an instructional guide on preparing an invention disclosure to us. The Guide will help you write a better quality IDF that will teach us the full scope of your idea, and educate you about the basics of Patent Law regarding patentability. You then prepare your invention disclosure form (IDF), which should include a very detailed description of how to make an use your invention, and how it compares to the prior-art.
Securely submit your detailed IDF and any relevant prior-art (e.g., patents) and/or documentation (e.g., brochures, photos, articles, drawings, etc.) that you know of to us.
With the full disclosure of your invention and any related prior-art, we will prepare a draft utility patent application for your review.
We iterate with you until you approve a final version for filing at the USPTO.
Once filed, we wait to receive the first office action, which occurs after initial examination by the USPTO (usually 12-18 months after filing). See full patent prosecution for some more details.
We also wait for your instructions to proceed on preparing any international patent applications before the one year deadline after the utility was filed.
For a better idea of how the patent process works, from beginning to end, have a look at this interactive, visual flow chart of the patent process.

Steps in Attaining a Provisional Patent Application

The suggested steps towards attaining a Provisional Patent Application (PPA) with Bay Area Intellectual Property Group (Bay Area IP) depends on the particular type of service you desire. We offer the utmost in flexibility to meet your needs optimally through two main categories of service, each having its respective steps of getting started. Please review the detailed description of our Read our help guide to our PPA services if you are not sure which service best suites your situation.

Quality Oriented Provisional Patents

To get started with our quality oriented Provisional Patent Application (PPA) service, we suggest the following steps be taken:

Read our FAQ guide to our quality PPA services
You may want to take advantage of our free initial consultation offer to generally assess your situation.
It is often helpful if you perform your own prior-art search and look for patents and printed publications, which seem to be similar to your invention.
If your confidence is not high enough and it is within your budget, it is often helpful for you have us perform a patentability search for you.
Request a Quote
If Bay Area IP accepts you as a client, we will provide you with a written quote for the PPA service you seek.
Upon the appropriate retainer payment being honored, we will email you payment confirmation and provide you with an instructional guide on preparing an invention disclosure to us. The Guide will help you write a better quality IDF that will teach us the full scope of your idea, and educate you about the basics of Patent Law regarding patentability. You then prepare your invention disclosure form (IDF), which should include a very detailed description of how to make an use your invention, and how it compares to the prior-art.
Securely submit your detailed IDF and any relevant prior-art (e.g., patents) and/or documentation (e.g., brochures, photos, articles, drawings, etc.) that you know of to us.
With the full disclosure of your invention and its detailed workings, we will prepare a draft PPA for your review.
We either iterate with you until you approve a final version for filing at the USPTO.

Once filed, we wait for your instructions to proceed on preparing and filing the non-provisional (e.g., utility, or full, patent application) or any international patent applications before the one year deadline after the provisional was filed.

For a better idea of how the patent process works, from beginning to end, have a look at this interactive, visual flow chart of the patent process.

Low-cost Oriented Provisional Patents

To get started with our cost oriented Provisional Patent Application (PPA) service we suggest the following steps be taken towards attaining a PPA with Bay Area IP:

Read our FAQ/Help guide to our Cost Oriented PPA services.
As you can appreciate, to offer the low flat rates as we do for our cost oriented services, all communications with Bay Area IP must be by email.
After you have identified the cost oriented Provisional Patent Application service that best suits your needs, you can pay for it ordered online.
Follow the instructions on the order form, and direct any questions you may have to us through our online form. If you believe you require an initial consultation, please read about our reduced cost consultation offer at the following link: Initial Consultation Cost.
Upon the appropriate payment being honored, we will email you payment confirmation (at the email address provided to us with your payment) shortly thereafter. An email will follow including instructions and password to retrieve your copy of our PPA preparation kit and any other required documents.
We work with you by email according to the level of service you procured. NOTE: prior to your submitting any confidential information, we can provide you an confidentiality agreement if you desire an added layer of protection. After you submit your draft PPA to us, we will perform the service you procured, and you simply file the final PPA to the USPTO, or we can file it for you, and you have instant "Patent-Pending" status.

Requesting an IP (i.e., patent or Trademark) search

1. You should review the type of IP search service(s) that you believe you may require.

2. After you have identified the IP searching service that best suits your needs, your selected IP searching service is ordered online. Or, to pay for our flat-rate, Patent prior-art searching services click here.

3. Follow the instructions on the order form, and direct any questions you may have to us by email. We are happy to assess your situation and help you determine the type of search that best suits your needs. If you believe you require an initial consultation, please read about our reduced cost consultation offer at the following link: Initial Consultation Cost.

4. Upon the appropriate payment being honored, we will email you payment confirmation shortly thereafter. Your confirmation email will include a special invention disclosure form (IDF) for you to complete which will document your invention in enough detail for us to perform an effective search. You then securely submit your IDF, and any relevant prior-art (e.g., found patents), and/or documentation (e.g., brochures, photos, articles, drawings, etc.) that you know of to us.

5. We will perform the search according to agreed upon methods and securely deliver a search report to you, including an opinion if procured.

6. Upon review of the search results, you can then determine how to proceed. If the search was a patentability search, and you want to secure patent protection for your invention, we can handle all aspects of the patent application process.

Consulting Services

Generally, Bay Area IP may be retained for consultation in a variety of competency areas including IP development, protection, strategy, marketing, and technology support. If you wish to explore how our proven skills can bring significant value to your efforts, please take advantage of our free initial consultation offer to discuss your unique situation, and how we may be of assistance towards achieving your goals.

Becoming a client of the firm

Generally, Bay Area Intellectual Property Group cannot meet a patent bar date unless we have at least 60 days prior to any bar date, for application preparation and filing. If a prospective or existing client has a pending patent bar date, it must be disclosed in writing to Bay Area IP at least concurrent with the cost estimate for patent preparation or any other related service such as prior-art searches.

Please take notice that any unsolicited means to contact us such as email or phone call is not intended to create a client relationship with Bay Area IP or any of its members or employees, nor does it create a confidentiality obligation on the firm's part. Prior to transmitting any information that you wish to be protected by the professional firm-client relationship or by an obligation of confidentiality, please contact us in such a way that no confidential information disclosed to us, and do not send any confidential information until you are advised to by a member of our firm.

Before our firm accepts a new client (in quality oriented PPA and Utility Patent Applications), several events must occur:flict check is performed to discover if work for the new client could potentially conflict with any existing clients of the firm. Typical information we need from the new client is your full name and address, and a list of any parties adverse to you. You must also describe to us the general nature of your invention or patent problem, without disclosing any confidential information. This step usually occurs transparently, most often after you provide us this general information via online submissions or in an initial consultation.

If we discover no conflicts, then we proceed to discuss with you practical matters such as our fee schedule, policies, expected work flow, and lead times. This is the opportunity for us to negotiate any terms, such as volume discounts or special requirements, you desire. If an acceptable understanding is reached, we will send you our service agreement for you to execute. In general, we bill by the hour (in ten minute increments) plus expenses. In addition to the standard hourly billing structure, we do offer various fixed-fee opportunities upon request, but only for tasks that are predictable in scope, and meet certain simplifying conditions. Except for flat-fee services, the cost of our services is calculated by multiplying our billing rate by the time it takes us to complete work you have requested. Our hourly rates may change at any time, but your cost estimate will always lock in the quoted billing rate until the estimate expires. Please review in detail our fee schedule for further information.
Prior to beginning work, we require our new clients to advance us a retainer fee. The retainer fee is stated in the written quote we send you, and is usually a flat amount or percentage (e.g., 100%) of the dollar value we quote you for your project plus all expected PTO fees. Although, the exact retainer is set forth in the quote we send you we typically require prepayment of our quoted fees. Once the retainer fee is honored by our bank, we will commence work
Upon project completion, any excess balance is refunded to the client, and any amount owed to us by the client is billed to the client, and is due within 10 days of our billing notice, and prior to patent filings. Once you become an established customer with a continuity of projects, we may bill you monthly. For complete details, please refer to our service agreement.

Disclosure Meeting

Once Bay Area IP has accepted you as our client, we will schedule a disclosure meeting usually for services billed hourly, and not by flat-fee, to obtain a full disclosure of the invention and to understand its detailed workings. Depending on your location and availability, this disclosure will be either at your location, or by way of video/teleconference, scheduled at a mutually agreeable time. We service the San Francisco Bay area for meetings at your location, and service clients nationally, or internationally, through phone or video conferences, depending on your technological capabilities.

Of course, in-person disclosure meetings are possible when practical; however, nearly all cases are suitable for remote clients who can communicate via the Internet and telephone. An exception might be, for example, the very rare case where to understand the invention it is critical to view a cumbersome prototype that cannot be shipped; that is, where pictures and schematics of the invention are inadequate. For all other cases, when working with a remote client it is generally sufficient to have in advance common detailed and numbered diagrams, a detailed description, and/or photos of the invention prior to the telephone/video disclosure meeting.

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