Go straight to a patent agent and show them your wallet. Draftsmen
will normally make a considerable surcharge (E.g. 50% on top of
the 8000 dollars or so) if you want your patent done in - say two
weeks. Drafting normally takes 3 to 8 weeks and if you don't review
their first draft quickly, you will easily add a month or two to that.
Perhaps you are not that desperate.
Having your patent granted can take anything from a year to four
years, so what is an extra month. To speed up the prosecution
process, pay the official fees early. In the UK, pay for search when
you file, and ideally for examination too. Make any amendments
which seem entirely necessary based on the search report before
the examiner has to tell you to do so.
Respond quickly to the examination objections as there may be
several rounds of these. Typically you have four months to respond
and that time goes quickly. In some territories such as the UK you
can apply for accellerated prosecution - this will result in early
examination, and if there are objections you will have to respond
within two months instead of four. In the UK if you pay the 200
pounds of search and examination fees and request accellerated
prosecution on filing then you could very easily have your patent
granted (or refused) in two years.
Nothing on this site constitutes legal advice, an offer, an offer to treat or a legal relationship.
Always check with your IP consultant.
