Patent Litigation Lawyers Worldwide.

While the names sound similar, they represent opposite ends of the patent lifecycle. Patent Prosecution is the administrative process of negotiating with the patent office to get the patent granted, involving friendly (though bureaucratic) back-and-forth with an examiner. Patent Litigation is the aggressive legal battle that happens after the patent is granted, where you sue a competitor in federal court for stealing your invention. Essentially, prosecution builds the weapon, and litigation fires it; litigation is significantly more expensive, with the American Intellectual Property Law Association estimating the average cost of a patent lawsuit to be between $2 million and $4 million.