Ask the lawyers you interview some important questions:

Do you draft the patent, or does an assistant do it?

How long will it take you to complete the job (that is, write the initial application and have it filed)?

Are you up-to-speed on The American Inventors Protection Act enacted November 29, 1999, as Public Law 106-113?

Are there any hidden charges in addition to service fees and disbursements, including government fees? Lawyers like clients to pick up their overhead plus fees. Some lawyers charge for incoming faxes. Refuse to pay for fax traffic between you and your patent firm if you’re located in the same city.

What is the charge for photocopies? This can be a profit center for some patent lawyers. This isn’t as bad as it used to be, though. Some state legal ethic codes, e.g., Virginia’s, allow lawyers only to recover their costs.

If the price is too high, cut a better deal. If there are co-inventors, get one copy and have one of the inventors copy and distribute the material. Services that specialize in copying patent files for law firms charge as much as $1 per page, which the patent attorney then marks up. You can buy black-and-white copy service less expensively at Kinko’s or Staples.

How are telephone consultations billed? Am I going to be charged every time I ask a question? I set these ground rules early in any relationship with counsel.

May I have a list of references and their phone numbers? You’ll want to talk to other independent inventors and see if they were satisfied.

What kind of guarantee comes with the work? In other words, you want to be sure you don’t get eaten alive by fee creep, which can be caused by interferences and appeals at the USPTO. It may take two or three years to prosecute a patent, depending on the amount of office action involved. Nail down the price up front, because a lawyer’s hourly rate most likely will have gone up by the time the work has been completed.

If your lawyer directs your search and drawing initiatives and mistakes are made, your lawyer will stand behind the work. The lawyer simply points out the mistakes to the subcontractors and takes it out of their hides.