Free Legal Help for Writing and Filing Patents

Free patent help is available to low income inventors. 

A bad word choice or even a misplaced comma can change the meaning of a patent claim and render it worthless. You can lose your rights entirely if you miss a filing date; failure to properly disclose prior art can result in your patent being declared invalid. There are dozens upon dozens of ways to screw things up. That's why paying a professional makes sense. But what do you do if you can't afford one?

The US Patent and Trademark Office offers two programs for inventors who don't have the resources to pay for professional help in filing patents:

• The Patent Pro Bono Program is a nationwide network of independently operated regional programs that match volunteer patent professionals with financially under-resourced inventors and small businesses for the purpose of securing patent protection. Each regional program provides services for residents of one or more states. Learn more here: https://www.uspto.gov/patents-...
  
  
• The Law School Clinic Certification program allows law students enrolled in a participating law school's clinic program to practice Intellectual Property Law before the USPTO under the strict guidance of a Law School Faculty Clinic Supervisor. The program currently consists of students practicing in both patent and trademark law before the USPTO. The program is administered by the Office of Enrollment and Discipline. The Director of the Office of Enrollment and Discipline grants the law students limited recognition to practice before the Office. Students gain experience drafting and filing either patent applications or trademark applications for clients of the law school clinic. Further, as they are authorized to practice before the USPTO, they gain experience answering Office Actions and communicating with either patent examiners or trademark examining attorneys for the applications they have filed. Learn more here: https://www.uspto.gov/learning...

The law schools listed below participate in the USPTO Law School Clinic Certification Program. Please contact the school at the listed e-mail address if you wish to make general inquiries or request legal services.

**ACCEPTANCE AS A CLIENT IS SUBJECT TO THE LAW SCHOOL’S REQUIREMENTS AND DISCRETION

*The micro entity fee for filing a provisional patent application with the USPTO rose from $65 to $70 in January 2018.