Zenith Legal Services

Patent Application Filing Process:
If you would like to file a patent application for your idea, listed below are the steps that we follow for drafting and filing your patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO):

Step 1: Please e-mail your name and contact information to us at mail@zenithadvisoryservices.com, and we will send you a non-disclosure agreement and a fee agreement that recites our flat fee for filing a patent application.

Step 2: Please review the NDA and fee agreement and if you wish to proceed, please download, sign and return the NDA and fee agreement to us as a PDF document by email. We will countersign the agreements and e-mail them back to you. You may then send us a description of your inventive concept and instruct us to conduct a prior art search (optional) to determine if the inventive concept is new, or, to file a provisional or non-provisional application without conducting a prior art search.

Step 3: We will draft the patent application and send the draft patent application to you for your review and edit. Your edits/changes will be incorporated in the patent application. Once you approve the patent application for filing, the patent application will be filed with the US PTO.

General Information Regarding The Patent Application Filing Process
A utility patent application may be filed for a product that has some utility or usefulness. There are two types of utility patent applications: provisional patent application, and non-provisional patent application.

You may file a provisional application first, and then within a year of the filing of the provisional application file the non-provisional patent application with the USPTO. Filing a provisional application is optional; you may file the non-provisional patent application without filing the provisional patent application.

A provisional patent application provides "patent pending" protection of the inventive concept for one (1) year after the provisional patent application is filed. A provisional patent application is not examined by the USPTO and does not issue as a patent. A provisional patent application expires one year after the provisional patent application is filed. A provisional patent application is filed to obtain the earliest filing date for the invention and/or to check the marketability of the product before a corresponding non-provisional patent application is filed.

If a provisional patent application is filed followed by the filing of a corresponding non-provisional patent application, the filing date assigned to the invention by the USPTO is the filing date of the provisional patent application. If the inventor needs patent protection beyond the one-year period, a regular non-provisional patent application must be filed claiming the priority date of the provisional patent application. The non-provisional application provides 20 years patent protection from the filing date of the non-provisional patent application.

You may also file a design patent application to protect the external shape and appearance of your product.

After the patent application is filed with the USPTO, the patent application is examined by the USPTO and if it found to be new and non-obvious in view of the prior art, a patent is granted for the inventive concept disclosed in the patent application.

You may pay by check, or by credit card with an additional 2% credit card processing fee, or on a monthly installment plan with no interest for patent related services.”