Get your Design Patent App Allowed or Attorney’s Fees Refunded: How Our Money-Back Guarantee Program Works
While we cannot guarantee success, our special Design Patent Money-Back Guarantee Program offers a full refund of attorney’s fees spent on qualified US design patent applications. To qualify, your design must not be substantially similar to any pre-existing designs to the best of your knowledge. Our firm will conduct a prior art search to determine if your design is eligible for the Money-Back Guarantee Program.
If your design qualifies for the program, our firm will offer a full refund of attorney’s fees if the USPTO rejects your design patent application based on any prior art. The refundable amount will not include out-of-pocket expenses such as USPTO fees and illustrator fees. Only the attorney’s fees are refundable.
Looking to pay for a design patent only if successful? Contact patent attorney Vic Lin at vlin@icaplaw.com or call (949) 223-9623 to qualify for our Design Patent Money-Back Guarantee Program.
This program does not apply to utility patent applications.
How does a new design qualify for the Money-Back Guarantee Program?
To qualify, your design must meet the following requirements:
- You must not be aware of any other identical or substantially similar designs already in existence.
- Your new design must be confidential, meaning that you have not publicly disclosed your design.
- Our firm will conduct a novelty search to determine that there are no substantially similar designs in the prior art.
If our search uncovers a substantially similar design in the prior art, then your design will not be eligible for the Money-Back Guarantee Program. We will charge a one-time non-refundable fee of $300 for the search, and refund the remaining balance to you.
For your designs that have been publicly disclosed or sold, we might be able to offer this program if the earliest public disclosure date was less than one year ago. Each particular design must be decided on a case-by-case basis, so contact us to explore qualifying for this program.
Any designs publicly disclosed or sold more than a year ago would not be eligible for this program.
How much does our Design Patent Money-Back Guarantee Program cost?
Our Design Patent Money-Back Guarantee Program has two different costs depending upon the size of the applicant:
- $4,250 for a small entity, including our $2,900 flat rate and approximately $1,350 in USPTO and illustrator fees; or
- $3,725 for a micro entity individual, including our $2,900 flat rate and approximately $825 in USPTO and illustrator fees
Our refundable attorney’s fee portion of the above costs is $2,900.
Pursuant to our firm’s policy, we file micro entity applications on behalf of individuals only, and not on behalf of companies.
Is the program 100% money-back? What is the non-refundable portion of the cost?
No, our program is not 100% money-back due to out-of-pocket costs which are non-refundable. Only our attorney’s fee portion of the cost is fully refundable.
For example, USPTO fees and illustrator fees are not refundable. In a Rocket Docket design patent application, the USPTO filing fees and illustrator fees will typically amount to a total of $1,350 for a small entity and $825 for a micro entity.
What does our refundable attorney’s fee program include?
Our Design Patent Money-Back Guarantee Program includes:
- Prior Art search
- Formal design patent drawings that meet strict USPTO drawing requirements
- Filing your design patent application with formal drawings with the USPTO
- Rocket Docket request to save one to two years of wait time
First, we conduct a novelty search. Assuming no substantially similar designs exist in the prior art, we proceed to the second stage below.
Second, we will have formal drawings prepared that will meet the stringent USPTO requirements. We will send you a draft for review and make any necessary revisions.
Third, after you approve the formal design patent drawings, we will file your design patent application with the USPTO.
Lastly, we will include a Rocket Docket request to speed up the examination. Without a Rocket Docket request, the average wait time for the initial examination of a US design patent application is 16 months. Some design applications can take over two years to receive an initial review. By filing a Rocket Docket request, we expect to receive an initial review in about 4 to 8 months, as opposed to 16 to 30 months.
What is not included in our Design Patent Money-Back Guarantee Program?
Our cost covers only a prior art search, the initial filing of your design patent application with formal drawings, and the Rocket Docket request. In particular, our cost does not include subsequent work such as the payment of the issue fee if your application is allowed.
How does the refund of attorney’s fees work?
Let’s use an example to illustrate the program. You sign our engagement agreement and confirm that you are not aware of any pre-existing substantially similar designs. Suppose you are a small entity, such as a company with fewer than 500 employees, so you pay us a $4,250 retainer to start the program.
After conducting the prior art search and finding no substantially similar designs, we file your US design patent application with a Rocket Docket request. In our hypothetical, the USPTO fees and illustrator fees amount to $1,350.
Unfortunately in this hypothetical, the examiner issues an Office Action rejecting your applied-for design because it is substantially similar to another design in the prior art.
At this point, you will get a refund of attorney’s fees totaling $2,900 ($4,250 minus $1,350 in out-of-pocket costs).
What if we find a substantially similar design in the prior art?
Though rare, there is a small risk that we might find a substantially similar design in our prior art search. If this occurs, we will refund the cost of the program less $300 for our efforts in conducting the prior art search. We expect this rare circumstance to occur in less than 5% of cases under our program.
For example, suppose a small entity client pays us $4,250 for this program and we uncover a substantially similar design in our prior art search. We will refund $3,950 to the client and not proceed with the second stage of filing the design patent application.
