In the U.S., it could be as low as $45 to file. It looks like most fursuit building companies (or sole proprietors) would count as micro entites as they do not make three times the average household income ($153,051 as of September 2013). Married people are counted as individuals and qualify individually, not by totalling their income; each should figure out how income is theirs. They could file up to four patents at this fee, and then they would probably have to start paying $90 (as a small entity - fewer than 500 employees), unless they also qualified by merit of being primarily employed by an institution of higher education, or were assigning a license to them.
Micro-entity and small entity patents must not be licensed to a non-qualifying entity, but I don't think making a suit for them counts.
But wait: That's the filing fee! There are also search ($95), examination ($115) and issue fees ($140) - so it's more like $395. You also have to get proper design drawings done, so I'd figure on closer to $1000 once you're done with it all.
In the U.S., it could be as low as $45 to file. It looks like most fursuit building companies (or sole proprietors) would count as micro entites as they do not make three times the average household income ($153,051 as of September 2013). Married people are counted as individuals and qualify individually, not by totalling their income; each should figure out how income is theirs. They could file up to four patents at this fee, and then they would probably have to start paying $90 (as a small entity - fewer than 500 employees), unless they also qualified by merit of being primarily employed by an institution of higher education, or were assigning a license to them.
Micro-entity and small entity patents must not be licensed to a non-qualifying entity, but I don't think making a suit for them counts.
But wait: That's the filing fee! There are also search ($95), examination ($115) and issue fees ($140) - so it's more like $395. You also have to get proper design drawings done, so I'd figure on closer to $1000 once you're done with it all.