Our Charges
Competitive Rates for Quality Services
We understand costs and their management are important to everyone to ensure that there are no surprises and that you can effectively budget. We have competitive charging structures across our patents, trademarks, and design services. These structures are a combination of hourly rates, administrative docket-related charges, and fixed-fee professional work in instances where we can reasonably assess the demands of the requested task. To minimize costs, unlike many firms, we attend to your IP procurement journey or IP rights protection by avoiding a succession of potentially unnecessary to-and-fro internal reviews of work from trainee to associate to partner and back around this loop. Rather, we operate to see that your matter is dealt with within the framework of your request and using the corresponding competencies of a single assigned attorney whilst only dipping into consultation when absolutely needed. This is just one of our many differences from other firms. Our Charging Structure We like to keep our charging structure simple. Depending on your agreed preference, we can work with you on a fixed fee basis or otherwise on an estimate or quote basis. That said, with all legal work and particularly foreign associate actioned work, the uncertainty attached to office action timing and the nature of the uncertainty surrounding the depth of legal advice you may require or work that is to be undertaken to best present your interests will mean that we cannot always work strictly to these preferences. We will always do our best to limit your cost exposure, provide a projection and timing for patent office costs and to provide reasonably assessed estimates arising for similar work. Any estimate or quote will depend on the complexity, urgency and importance of the work.
Our charges include advising and attending to you, and dealing with documents, correspondence, etc. on your behalf. We can generally only quote fixed fee rates with respect to a known work product relating to a particular activity or specific event(s) that you ask that we undertake on your behalf and over which we have control. Consequently, additional work which we cannot foresee or reasonably forecast and/or which falls outside your initial instructions may be subject to additional fees either charged at another pre-agreed fixed fee basis or at current hourly rates for our staff, both professional and support. Docket charges for administrative reporting and recording event deadlines will be incurred independently and will reflect our at-the-time fee schedule. Fees Our charges are based principally on the amount of our professional time spent on a matter although other factors may also be taken into account, for example in a matter in which highly specialised knowledge is required or if the matter is complex and/or urgent. We may apply tariff (“docket”) charges – available on request – to specific tasks, including (without limitation) the filing of a patent or trade mark application and the docketing and reporting of events, such as patent office notifications. Our hourly rates are determined with reference to the seniority and experience of the professional staff involved. These rates are reviewed periodically. Charges are calculated at hourly rates which apply when the work is carried out. Please ask us at any time if you would like to be send details of those rates.
In appointing us to act on your behalf, you are also authorising us to incur such expenses as we consider necessary to carry out your instructions properly and agreeing that you will reimburse us in respect of those expenses. Examples of such expenses are Patent Office fees, fees of Counsel and other experts, Court fees, and the costs of third parties (for example, patent attorneys in other countries, experts, searchers and translators) who we instruct on your behalf. Expenses incurred on your behalf might also include such items as photocopying costs, courier charges, travel, accommodation and meeting expenses, telephone and fax charges. Third-party expenses may be charged to us in currencies other than GBP. When carrying out currency conversions we apply reasonable uplift of sixteen percent to cover bank charges and currency fluctuations which arise between the date of receipt of costs incurred on your behalf and the date of payment by you of our invoice. Should you wish to avoid this uplift, we can pre-invoice you for the anticipated costs for the work so that the costs, or most of those costs, can be settled before expenses are incurred. While any agreed fixed fee charges are predictable [in contrast to time charges for hourly invoiced professional fees], you should appreciate that many expenses are outside our control since they might be changed without notice and (in the case of foreign matters) vary with exchange rate fluctuations. Any estimate of likely costs which we provide, whether in response to your request or otherwise, is given as a guide only to assist you in budgeting and should not be regarded as a firm quotation or a fixed or capped fee unless otherwise agreed in writing. Any estimate or quotations given by us are net of VAT, which will be charged as applicable on our fees and those expenses that are liable for VAT. We reserve the right to submit invoices to you at regular (usually monthly) intervals, or at appropriate stages in the conduct of the matter. We may require payment on account, particularly in respect of large items such as charges and expenses to be incurred in foreign filing and actions. When we make such a request, we will usually not carry out any instructed work until the requested payment has cleared into our bank account. We will issue invoices for our services and disbursements and third-party disbursements regularly. Our terms are that invoices are payable within thirty days after the date of the invoice. We appreciate the nature of business and understand that relationships require some give and take, so we can provide flexibility. However, any variance from the payment terms are at our sole discretion and any variance (informed or otherwise) is not a waiver from us that the payment is not overdue. Our obligations or commitments to you mean that we will always act in our mutual best reasonable interests. In extenuating and exceptional circumstances, should you fail to pay an amount invoiced with our terms or agreement, we may: choose not to carry out any further work for you until all monies owing by you to us are paid in full, but we will appropriately notify you of deadlines that must be met. You will be responsible for the consequences of the suspension of our work, which may include the irrevocable loss of, or failure to obtain, rights; retain custody of our papers, documents and files until all monies owing by you to us are paid in full; and charge statutory interest on any amount outstanding for more than thirty days. Interest will accrue from the date of the invoice.