How to Get an Invention Patented: Steps, Costs & Maintenance

To get an invention patented, you file an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) after confirming your invention meets the legal requirements, then work through an examination process that usually takes two to three years and pay fees to keep the patent in force. Learning how to get an invention patented means understanding five stages: choosing the right type of patent, meeting the patentability requirements, searching prior art, filing and prosecuting the application, and maintaining the patent after it issues. Each stage has deadlines that can permanently end your rights if missed.

Choose the Right Type of Patent

The USPTO issues three types of patents, and the type you need depends on what you invented.

  • Utility patents cover how something works or is made — new processes, machines, manufactured items, chemical compositions, or useful improvements to any of these. Protection lasts 20 years from the filing date, and maintenance fees are required to keep the patent alive.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 35 USC 154 – Contents and Term of Patent
  • Design patents protect the ornamental appearance of a functional item — its shape, surface pattern, or visual design rather than its function. Protection runs 15 years from the grant date with no maintenance fees.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 35 USC 173 – Term of Design Patent
  • Plant patents cover new plant varieties reproduced asexually (grafting, budding, or cuttings rather than seeds), and last 20 years from filing.

Most inventors are looking at a utility patent, and the rest of this article focuses on that path. Much of the process applies to design and plant applications as well.

Confirm Your Invention Qualifies

Three legal requirements must all be met. Falling short on any one sinks the application.

Novelty

The invention cannot already exist in the public record. If it was described in a publication, offered for sale, in public use, or otherwise publicly available before your filing date, it fails.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 35 USC 102 – Conditions for Patentability; Novelty

There is one safety valve. If you publicly disclosed your own invention — showed it at a trade show, published about it, or offered it for sale — you have exactly one year from that disclosure to file. Miss that window and you permanently forfeit your right to patent it. The grace period only protects your own disclosures. Someone else independently publishing the same idea before your filing date still creates a bar.

Non-Obviousness

Even without a single matching prior invention, the examiner will ask whether someone with ordinary expertise in your field would have found your combination or improvement obvious. Simply combining two known components in a predictable way usually fails this test.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 35 USC 103 – Conditions for Patentability; Non-Obvious Subject Matter

Utility

The invention must actually do something practical and work as described. Purely theoretical ideas or things that can’t function don’t qualify.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 35 USC 101 – Inventions Patentable

Search Prior Art Before Filing

Prior art is all publicly available information relevant to your invention: existing patents, published applications, academic papers, product manuals, even social media posts describing similar technology. The USPTO’s free search tools and Google Patents are reasonable starting points.

A thorough search does two things. It tells you whether your invention is genuinely novel and non-obvious before you spend money on an application, and it shows you the surrounding landscape so you can draft claims that distinguish your invention from what came before. Patent attorneys and professional search firms run more comprehensive searches than most inventors can manage alone, and for complex inventions the cost is usually worth it.

Prepare the Application

A non-provisional utility application is a technical legal document, and the drafting quality directly affects how strong your eventual patent will be. It has four main parts:

  • Specification: a written description complete enough that someone skilled in your field could replicate the invention. Federal law requires this to be complete; leaving out critical details is grounds for rejection.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 35 USC 112 – Specification
  • Claims: single-sentence statements that each define one boundary of your patent’s legal protection. Broader claims mean wider protection but are harder to defend; narrower claims are easier to get approved but easier for competitors to design around.
  • Drawings: nearly every application requires them, and they must follow specific USPTO formatting rules.
  • Abstract: a brief summary used for searching and indexing.

The Provisional Option

If you’re not ready for a full application but want to lock in an early filing date, you can file a provisional application. It needs a written description and any necessary drawings, but no formal claims, and it costs far less: $325 for a large entity, $130 for a small entity, or $65 for a micro entity.7United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Fee Schedule

A provisional stays pending for 12 months. During that time you can use “patent pending.” The provisional itself is never examined. You must file a non-provisional within the 12 months to claim the earlier filing date. If you don’t, the provisional is treated as abandoned and cannot be revived.8United States Patent and Trademark Office. Provisional Application for Patent

File the Application

Applications are submitted electronically through Patent Center, the USPTO’s unified filing system.9United States Patent and Trademark Office. Patent Center Paper filing is still technically allowed but adds a $400 surcharge for large entities.

When the USPTO receives your application, it assigns a filing date and an application number. That date is the reference point for the 20-year patent term, and it establishes your priority over anyone who files a similar application later.

Work Through Examination

After filing, the application enters a queue. An examiner with expertise in the relevant technology reviews it against patent law, searching prior art and testing your claims against the novelty, non-obviousness, and utility requirements.

How Long It Takes

As of early fiscal year 2026, the average wait from filing to the first communication from an examiner is about 22 months.10United States Patent and Trademark Office. Patents Pendency Data That first communication is called an Office Action, and it rarely approves the application as filed. Getting from first Office Action to final decision adds more months, sometimes years, depending on the back-and-forth.

For a faster answer, the USPTO’s Track One prioritized examination aims for a final decision within about 12 months. It’s available for utility and plant applications and costs $4,515 for large entities, $1,806 for small entities, or $903 for micro entities.11United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO’s Prioritized Patent Examination Program

Office Actions and Responses

Most Office Actions reject some or all claims, citing prior art the examiner reads as anticipating your invention or statutory requirements the application doesn’t meet. A first-round approval is the exception, not the rule.

You typically have three months to respond. Extensions can be purchased one month at a time up to a maximum of six months total from the Office Action date, with a fee for each extra month.12United States Patent and Trademark Office. Manual of Patent Examining Procedure 710 – Period for Reply Let the six-month deadline pass without responding and your application is abandoned.

Responding usually means amending your claims to narrow them past the examiner’s objections, or arguing with evidence that the examiner’s reading of the prior art is wrong. This continues until the examiner either allows the application or issues a final rejection.

Options After a Final Rejection

A final rejection isn’t necessarily the end. You have three paths:

  • Request for Continued Examination (RCE): pay a fee and submit amended claims or new arguments, which reopens prosecution. Many patents are ultimately granted after one or more RCEs, though each adds cost and time.
  • Appeal to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB): available once any claim has been rejected twice. A panel of administrative patent judges reviews the examiner’s decision independently. Appeals often take a year or more.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 35 U.S. Code 134 – Appeal to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board
  • Continuation application: file revised claims in a new application, starting a fresh examination cycle while keeping the benefit of your original filing date.

What you cannot do is nothing. Miss the response deadline on a final rejection without filing an RCE or a notice of appeal, and the application is abandoned.

What It Costs

Costs split into two categories: USPTO fees and professional fees. Government fees are published and predictable. Attorney or patent agent fees vary widely, with hourly rates typically running from $150 to $800 depending on experience and the invention’s complexity.

Core USPTO fees for a utility application include:

  • Basic filing fee: $350 (large entity), $140 (small entity), $70 (micro entity).7United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Fee Schedule
  • Issue fee, paid when the patent is approved: $1,290 / $516 / $258.
  • Search and examination fees, charged separately on top of the filing fee, following the same entity-size discounts.

Entity size matters. Small entities — generally independent inventors, businesses with fewer than 500 employees, and nonprofits — pay roughly 60% less than large entities. Micro entities, who must also meet income limits and have filed no more than four previous applications, pay about 80% less.7United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Fee Schedule Qualifying as a micro entity when eligible can save thousands of dollars over a patent’s life.

Keep the Patent Alive After It Issues

The grant is not the finish line for a utility patent. Maintenance fees come due at three intervals, and missing one lets the patent expire. Design patents require no maintenance fees.

The current utility patent schedule:

  • 3.5 years after grant: $2,150 (large entity), $860 (small entity), $430 (micro entity).
  • 7.5 years after grant: $4,040 / $1,616 / $808.
  • 11.5 years after grant: $8,280 / $3,312 / $1,656.7United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Fee Schedule

Each payment window opens six months before the due date. Miss the deadline and there’s a six-month grace period, but only with a surcharge. Miss the grace period and the patent expires, at which point anyone can freely use the invention.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 35 U.S. Code 41 – Patent Fees; Patent and Trademark Search Systems Factor these payments into the decision about whether a patent makes financial sense for your invention, particularly if you’re unsure you’ll still be commercializing it a decade from now.