As the founder of a large patent drafting firm, I have priced thousands of sheets of patent drawings. Patent drawings require a great deal of skill, and should be performed by individuals fluent in the technical field. Because of this, a single sheet of drawings can cost well over $100. While some high priced drawings are unavoidable, the vast majority can be executed without breaking the bank. Here are a few suggestions which should translate into savings.

1. Junk in...junk out. In patent drafting this isn't 100% true. A good draftsman should be able to turn your rock into a diamond. The problem is that you will pay a premium for this transformation. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a case heroically rendered from practically illegible source material, into what seems like an accurate drawing. When the attorney receives the case which unavoidably misses the mark, he often produces a perfectly clear copy of what the drawing was supposed to be drafted from. Now a second rendering is required. Bottom line: the draftsman took too long trying to decipher the original source material, the proof-reader took too long pretending to correct the drawings, and now the whole process needs to be redone. Moral: Let your client know that it is worth his/her time to submit the clearest and most in-depth source material they have.

2. Page Density. Illustrations come in all shapes and sizes. Some are highly detailed and packed with information, while others are simplified block diagrams. Because of this most draftsmen find it impossible to charge on a flat, per sheet, basis. However, when you compare a companies overall pricing, invariable you will be quoted a per sheet average. If your drawings are simple, they will cost slightly less than the average, and if they are complicated they will cost slightly more than the average. The point here is that over the years a per-page accepted range has been established in the drafting field. This means that no matter how complicated your case is, there is only so much a draftsman can charge per sheet. When rendering complex images, most firms eat the extra cost and hope to make it up on the easier cases. The system works, and nobody gets hurt. But knowing this, you can use the system to your advantage. See to it that you instruct the draftsman to put as many figures as physically possible on each sheet. You will incur a higher per sheet price, but far fewer sheets will be necessary. The per-sheet-price-ceiling we spoke about will ultimately work in your favor.

3. Communication. Have you ever reviewed drawings from the draftsman and wondered if he somehow sent you the wrong case? The drawings resemble your case, but what was the draftsman thinking? Odds are he was thinking about calling you to discuss the case before he went off in the wrong direction, but he didn't want to disturb you. So much time can be saved with a simple question. If you are too busy to bother with questions, then you most likely will have to waste a lot of time instructing the draftsman to revise the drawings. The only difference is that had you established open lines of communication from the start, you wouldn't be paying for expensive revisions.

4. Not all draftsmen are created equal. Just because a draftsman can crank out your flow charts in record time, doesn't mean he can adequately render your design cases. And while a solid design draftsman can certainly handle flow charts, he may not do them as efficiently as the next guy. Using a CAD package for your Visio. charts is like swatting a fly with a bazooka. You may get the fly, but now you've got a huge hole in the wall. While it isn't practical to compare different draftsmen on every case, you may want to establish more than one "go-to-guy". At least whenever you start using your draftsman for a new style of drawing, proceed without the assumption that its up his alley. Odds are you will save a lot of time and money with an arsenal of draftsman as opposed to a single source.

5. Size matters. Cases with many sheets can command better pricing. Typically multiple drawings in a single case share common features. A draftsman should be able to utilize these features to streamline the rendering of the overall case. While you don't want to artificially inflate the amount of pages, you will do well to be on the look-out for similarities in drawings, and be sure to let the draftsman know that this case should be rendered, and priced, based on the sum of its parts rather than the quantity of its sheets. In some firms large cases will be broken up among multiple draftsmen. Aside from consistency issues with this method, you can run into a greatly inflated final price. Since many sheets in the case may be spin-offs from a parent drawing, splitting the case among multiple draftsmen can create a situation where drawings which would normally be regarded as a simple 5 minute touch-up, are in fact drawn from scratch all over again. So when you are submitting a large case keep in mind that you can demand a better rate, and be sure to alert the draftsman of any known threads of consistency inherent in the case.

6. Cases don't live in vacuums. We have mentioned, that within a large case there are often drawings that build on each-other, and attention to these aspects can streamline the other, and attention to these aspects can streamline the drafting process. The same idea applies across cases. Often times from one case to another you will have drawings that can be utilized to aid the drafting process. Even cases that do not share exact drawings are often helpful to the draftsman in understanding the case. This enhanced understanding will inevitably translate into a better drawing and lower costs. While the argument can be made, that within a