[quote=jficquette]Costs about $25-30K for a Law Firm to do the patent search. Not cheap.

Maybe you could find a lawyer to do it cheaper if you cut them in on the deal. Not sure if that is ethical though.

John[/quote]

I think you’re talking about having a firm issue a clearance opinion (which is very expensive). Simply doing a search should not cost anything near that much (I’ll check with my husband – he is an in house IP attorney who deals with a variety of firms). On the other hand, if that is what people are getting paid for searches these days, I’m definitely going back to work. :).

There are some issues with accepting corporate stock in lieu of payment (see this ABA article: http://www.abanet.org/media/youraba/200605/article01.html) but I don’t know anything about accepting an interest in the application itself. I’d steer away from it, though.