[DannyBee]

Uh, where did you come up with $180 each?

The PTO revenue is vastly greater than that, and the vast majority is diverted to other agencies.

The actual PTO revenue is 2.2 billion in 2011

[ritchiea]

I googled and found a basic filing fee was $180. But even 2.2 billion isn't really enough to create significant monetary incentives for the government to issue patents given that the 2012 federal budget was 2.5 trillion. There are far greater monetary incentives to finding the right patent structure that allows companies to turn profits, pay taxes and hire people who also pay taxes.

[DannyBee]

The basic filing fee only includes literally submitting the application itself :)

There is an examination fee of 720, a search fee of 600, and an issue fee of 1780.

There are also often plenty of other fees :)

The actual fees for an average patent are closer to 10k per filing, sometimes a lot more.

[ritchiea]

Aha. Thanks for the info! Good to know.