Answers · Pricing
What does an IP consulting engagement cost?
Updated June 2026
The short answer
IP consulting engagements typically range from roughly $5,000 for a focused, single-deliverable analysis to $250,000 and beyond for multi-year enterprise programs, and ipCapital Group's work spans that same territory. Most first engagements are fixed-scope projects in the five-figure range, sized to the portfolio, the goals, and the decisions the work needs to support.
We have priced projects for individual inventors and for companies with thousands of patent families. The work scales; the approach does not change: a free discovery call, then a written proposal with fixed scope, timeline, and budget.
Why there is no rate card
Twenty-five years of engagements have taught us that the same deliverable name can describe projects an order of magnitude apart. A patent landscape covering one product category in one jurisdiction and a landscape covering a Fortune 500 competitor set across global filings are both called a landscape. A valuation for internal planning and a valuation a lender's credit committee will scrutinize are both called a valuation. Listing one price for either would mislead in both directions.
So we scope instead. The discovery call establishes what you are deciding, what evidence that decision needs, and what is in and out of scope. The proposal that follows is fixed-price, which means scope discipline is our problem, not yours.
What engagements look like at different scales
Individual inventors typically come to us for a specific answer: what a portfolio might be worth, or how to document an invention properly before filing. These are focused projects, often in the low five figures or less, like a first-pass valuation starting around $5,000.
Startups and small companies usually need foundations: deciding what to protect ahead of a raise, a disclosure program for the first filings, or a landscape of the competitive set. These run as staged, fixed-scope projects so the spend tracks funding reality.
Growth-stage and public companies engage us for portfolio audits, competitive benchmarking, valuation tied to transactions, and invention pipeline programs. Scope is larger because the portfolios and the stakes are larger.
Fortune 500 clients, which have made up a meaningful share of our work since 1998, typically run multi-workstream programs: invention harvesting across business units, landscape monitoring, disclosure pipelines, and strategy retainers. These are six-figure and multi-year relationships.
Two reference points you can use today
Two of the most-asked-about services have market ranges stable enough to publish as planning guides. Patent valuations commonly run from about $5,000 for a first-pass estimate to $25,000 for an investor-grade package to $50,000 and up for transaction-grade support. Business-grade invention disclosures typically run about $7,000 each, closer to $5,000 in volume programs, excluding attorney and filing fees. These are market-typical figures, not ipCG quotes.
Those two reference points are a fair guide to how everything else scales: the price follows portfolio size, analytical depth, and the audience that has to trust the output.
Related questions
Do you bill hourly?
Our standard model is fixed-scope, fixed-price projects, so you know the budget before committing. Ongoing advisory retainers are available, typically after a first project establishes the working relationship.
Is the discovery call really free?
Yes. It is a 15 to 30 minute conversation about your situation, with no obligation. If we are not the right fit, we will say so and point you somewhere useful.
Can a small company actually afford a firm that serves the Fortune 500?
Yes, because we right-size scope rather than discount a fixed offering. A focused five-thousand-dollar analysis gets the same methodology as an enterprise program; it just answers a narrower question.
What should we prepare before a discovery call?
The decision you are trying to make, a rough sense of your portfolio or invention pipeline, and any deadline driving the work. That is enough for us to sketch scope on the call.
Scope it before you budget it
Bring us the decision you are trying to make. The discovery call is free and the proposal is fixed-price, whatever your size.
Talk with Our TeamipCapital Group is a consultancy, not a law firm, and nothing on this page is legal advice. Dollar figures on this page are typical market ranges for professional IP services, drawn from published sources and industry experience across a variety of providers. They are not an ipCG quote or rate card; every ipCG engagement is individually scoped and priced. See how our pricing works.