Law Firm Group Answers |
 | How do your firm´s fees compare to the fees of other firms? |
Our fees represent an exceptional value – what we describe as a win-win for us and our clients. Our attorneys have extensive experience working in large law firms and continue to provide the same high quality legal products and services they always have. However, we profitably do so without charging the high rates of a big firm. This table shows how we leverage our experience and low overhead expenses to provide substantial savings to our clients at a fair profit: | Legal Service | Typical Fee of
Mid-Sized IP Firm** | Our Typical
Flat Fee | Savings | | Copyright Application | $451 | $350 | $101 | 22% | | Trademark Application & Search | $2,398 | $1,400 | $998 | 42% | | Provisional Patent Application* | $4,445 | $2,000 | $2,445 | 56% | | Nonprovisional Patent Application* | $10,140 | $6,500 | $3,640 | 36% | *The fees described are for small entity clients with standard complexity patent applications.
**Source: 2011 AIPLA Report of the Economic Survey for firms with 16-59 attorneys. All fees listed include standard government fees.
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| What do your flat fees include? |
| The flat fees include everything involved with preparing and filing your patent, trademark, or copyright application. Indeed, the flat fees include all legal fees, standard government fees, and administrative fees. For nonprovisional patent applications, the flat fee also includes a standard set of technical drawings. |
| What is covered in a free initial consultation? |
We offer free initial consultations by phone with an intellectual property paralegal and paid initial consultations when meeting in-person. Initial consultations are an opportunity to discuss the process for securing patent and trademark protection, our patent and trademark service offerings, and the fees involved for each service. The initial consultation is also an opportunity to answer your general questions about patents and trademarks and our related services. There are limits to what we can ethically cover in an initial consultation. For example, we can not give legal advice in an initial consultation or discuss the specific circumstances of your matter because we need to first check for potential conflicts of interest and confirm that we can add you as a client. For these reasons, we can not offer initial consultations for litigation matters, contract drafting matters, or client counseling matters. However, we would be happy to schedule a project consultation for you after confirming that we are ethically able to represent you. |
| Do you charge for emails and phone calls? |
Generally, no. We do not charge legal fees for time spent answering your general questions about a service you are considering or about an ongoing matter. We also do not charge for emails or letters we prepare to update you on the status of your case. We do not nickel-and-dime clients as often occurs in larger law firms. If a given question would involve extended legal research or substantial time to answer properly, we will discuss the legal fees that would be involved and will obtain your approval before proceeding. |
| I see that your firm is based in Portland, OR. Will you assist me if I do not live in Oregon? |
Certainly. We have offices in Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; and Denver, Colorado and provide patent, trademark, and copyright services for clients across the country. Most of our intellectual property legal services involve federal law, which is not state specific. |