How does an individual file a patent? How much would it cost?
If I were to patent something, how would I go about doing so? Has anyone here filed a patent independently? My company can file patents but I would like to file one, unrelated to my work on every single way, (I work in finance and this is electronics, and IoT). However, how would I go about it? How much will it cost?
If you haven't already done so then you might read "Patent It Yourself Your Step-by-Step Guide to Filing at the U.S. Patent Office" by David Pressman, published by Nolo. There is a vast amount of expertise in that book. There are also "How to Make Patent Drawings" and "Inventor's Cookbook" to go along with that, also from Nolo, but I have not read those.
People file independently all the time. Patent lawyers also exist if you want help. Fees can be anywhere from under $100 for a provisional application, to a few thousand if you hire some help with the filing and drawings.
We did ours semi-independently, where we wrote the patent and then paid a patent attorney to look it over and file it. This cost about £5000 all the way to and including the PCT stage.