Law departments can learn typical charges for IP law services as detailed in AIPLA Report

Little uncertainty surrounds the typical costs of common forms of US patent and trademark services. For 18 US utility patent services, 9 trademark services, and 9 other kinds of IP services, a detailed report lays out the median charges by US law firms. Even more, the American Intellectual Property Law Association’s Rep. of the Ec. Survey 2005, at 18, provides several years of data on these costs so you can calculate the trend line.

To know that the median charges of law firms (no copying, drawing or government fees) for an “original application, relatively complex, biotech/chemical” was $12,000 gives legal departments an enormous advantage when negotiating fee arrangements.