I started working with Bay Area IP after receiving a reference from a professional acquaintance who had used them in the past. This was my first patent and after receiving quotes from several companies, I decided to go with Bay Area IP due to the affordability (they're a lot less expensive than other companies) and the reassurance I received from their patent experts. I just received my patent allowance from the USPTO after one office response and am very happy with the outcome. If you're looking for an affordable agency to help you submit your patent, I recommend you give Bay Area IP a try. read more

RUN! This is a scam. Ariel (if he is even a real person) is not an attorney despite his claims otherwise. You will never speak to him. His gatekeeper Abby will never let you through after you pay them They take your money and either do nothing or do very poor work. We paid extra to work with an attorney, but Abby, Mei and Libby were the only ones we were allowed to speak to and they have no credentials to be handling our patent. Report them to USPTO and DOJ. Many of us have done so. The more filed, the more DOJ will consider criminal action. Sue them in small claims. You do not have to go to arbitration despite the contract verbiage. Then post your judgments online here and elsewhere. Address to serve them: 100 Pine Street, Ste. 1250 San Francisco, CA 94111 They cannot force you not to leave a review of your experiences. But they will try. They will threaten you as they have done to me. Don't be fooled. The contract language about "disparagement" is unenforceable. Interesting they even included language about that. With many dozen horrible reviews all basically complaining about the same thing, why risk it? There are may great patent attorneys. RUN! UPDATE: He called me a lar like he did with the dozens of others who have remarkably similar complaints. We can't all be liars. The USPTO complaint is open and I was informed the government is about to take action. When they do, I will post photos of correspondence here. read more

This guy Bentolila is not an attorney !!! This is a warning to anyone thinking about hiring this clown!!' He has many clauses he uses so he does not have to actually do the service!!! He will take your money and will not provide the services !!! Do not give this creep any money!!! I have met him on a video complaint to the USPTO most unprofessional I have ever met !!! Just don't give him your money!!! You will regret it!!! read more

Lies lies and more lies... I never once gave them a 5 star review for any reason. They were terrible from the start, up until when I ran far far away from them. For anyone looking for IP help, be sure to steer clear of these SCAMMERS...who, for the record, seem to be paying for positive Yelp reviews...which is pretty unetheical. And if you think I'm not being truthful, try to set up an in person meeting with them...it won't happen and they will ALWAYS refuse to do so, using every excuse in the book. I suppose it's easier to SCAM people over email rather than in person. read more

These people are the Best ! From day one their Team -Ariel, Abby, Libby, Mei and the rest have been extremely thorough, timely, and efficient. The quality of their work has resulted in the "Allowance " of 3 of my USPTO patents and a 4th pending with an accompanying "PCT " world patent Allowance in progress. I've been working with these people since 2018. Thank you so much Ariel and team. Sincerely Brisbin Skiles, Skiles Solutions Inc. read more

Notice it took 4 months to write a response. This is a pure example what i had to deal with "empty promises" . And not one time did i ever talk with the Owner after many request he was shielded from me. A simple call back or email..would have been nice.. communication is everything. Be reasonable . read more

I started working with Bayareaip in March 2015 and received a letter granting the claims I wanted for my patent in October of 2019. I worked with Bayareaip under their flat-fee option as I am a Micro Entity. The patent process challenged me both analytically and creatively. I could not have achieved the results I hoped for without the help of the team from Bayareaip. They are extremely knowledgeable about the patent process and they know how best to communicate your idea to the examiners of the USPTO. There is no way I could have succeeded in achieving my desired results on my own. read more

As a small business owner/inventor Bay Area IP was thorough and effective in getting my patent pushed through. The US Patent Office was being very difficult in approving my patent. Bay Area IP was able to overturn their initial rejection. I highly recommend using them read more

Very pleased with their service. They took ample time to understand my questions and provided excellent guidance. Abby was exceptional and very thorough. I hope to work with them in the future for my next project. Thank you! read more

Fraud , Extortion , Scam !!!!!!!! I am writing this as a concerned veteran who have fought for the rights americans .Based on my experience so far with this Bay Area IP Group LLC, has only shown efficiency in taking my money of $2300. When I realised they have not started my work after weeks of providing my documents directly deposted money to their account I have politly requested for my money back saying that I no longer want to use their services . I was told I need to write a written request . I did so on June 4th. My money went in their account on June 3rd. On 4th june after weeks of promising me I had only reached the so called new case set up status ( potential client) No legal work was done as of June 4th. My money should have been returned on 4th or 5th june the latest. I called so many times that I have lost count . Finally I got a reply on June 17th Sorry for the delays in responding to you, but we've been understaffed the past few weeks, trying to train new people to help with handling calls and emails. This is indeed a very unusual situation.  By May 20 you submitted to us your PPA and called in asking us to rush our work based on that, without delay.  So, we did so, bypassing our normal workflow process.  Then out of nowhere, on June 4th you asked to stop our further work on preparing your case and terminate.   By then we were was almost done drafting the patent app. Flat fees paid are usually non-refundable.  Generally, as outline in our service agreement, we charge setup, general retainer, and work done against flat-fees paid on a cancelled case. As you will recall, we quoted you heavily discounted fees because you were a micro-entity individual.  As agreed upon in our service agreement, when a casework is terminated our discounted fee schedule/quote no longer applies, and instead our undiscounted fees apply.  So, generally, upon termination we, at minimum, charge undiscounted setup, general retainer, and work done fees against flat-fees paid on a cancelled case. I looked at our quote letter to you, and see that the following are the undiscounted account charges that apply to your case: a $500 case setup fee, which covers not only our overhead in creating/docketing your new case, but customer interaction, support, and allocation of resources, associated costs, general overhead, initial Advertising/marketing costs, etc., all of which we must recoup on cancelled new cases. a $1000 general retainer fee, applied towards our Rush preparing the specification based upon your May 20th submitted PPA and your request by phone to rush our preparation based on that. A $500 termination fee (see TOS under "BILLS; PROMPT PAYMENT" pages 3-4) a $750 fee charged for our work reviewing, validating, and preparing our preliminary draft for your "Final ID" approval. That amounts to $2750 at our undiscounted fee schedule. Your payment made was $2300; so, unfortunately, that leaves nothing on balance to refund to you, and actually $450 of undiscounted billed account fees that would become due/collectable. Please advise if we could just finish our patent drafting work now, as we were was almost done by the time you asked to cancel. With kind regards, ParaLegal Assistant Bay Area Intellectual Property Group Serving Industry, Lawyers, and Individual Innovators P.O. Box 210459 San Francisco, CA 94121-0459 Main Phone: 1-888-88-BayAreaIP (888-882-2927) x125 Office Phone: (415) 515-3005 Facsimile: (775) 402-1238 THIS MESSAGE MAY CONTAIN INFORMATION WHICH IS CONFIDENTIAL, ATTORNEY CLIENT PRIVILEGED AND/OR ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT. IF YOU ARE NOT THE INTENDED RECIPIENT OF THIS MESSAGE, PLEASE DELETE IT IMMEDIATELY. This email has been checked for viruses by AVG antivirus software. www.avg.com on 4th june I barely made to new case setup status. This arument is like you were to go to a store and the store keeper shows you a very attracive doll and says you have to give me money in advance to show you the doll for sale. Now the customer sensed a huge crack in this doll have not even touched the doll requesting for the money back is told No money back and you have to pay the full price because you showed interest. You be the judge.!!!!! Today is june 22nd I have not recieved my money back yet. read more

I have spoken to a lot of people that have tried to submit their own patent ideas directly to USPTO for Utility and Design Patent and never were successful. At this point I knew I had to turn to the experts. After doing my research, I found "Bay Area IP" which was in the heart of Silicon Valley. I am so glad I did! I spoke with Ariel Bentolila, Lead Patent Agent, about my idea for an hour to see if I had something Patentable. He said I did. Then I started working with the team on both a Design and Utility patent. As of today, I hold the Design Patent for my idea and the Utility Patent is being issued. The team at Bay Area IP, is helpful giving details of what's needed and is willing to speak to you via a phone call. Boy did I need it at times - some of the objections from the USPTO did not make sense. I know today, without their help I would not have the Design & Utility patents to protect my ideas :) Check us out www.ArrowStrap.com read more

100% INCOMPETENT! My experience has been horrific for months now. Everything I state, "I don't have the email", the same excuse is regurgitated "maybe it's in your spam box or your provider has a block." I AM the provider, I know HOW to run a server. So, I explain, "your email is not here.. not sent... not received." Amazing, THEN the email is received with the time stamp after the "no, we sent it" excuse. Add to this, I was told the Patent would be "provisional" within 2 weeks. That was August, this is now December and it's only become worse. When I called to select which attorney I was assured "we can do this for $3500!", when I began the process I was told, "OH! WOW! This is quite extensive.. it will b $5,000". And now that I am complaining about the horrible amount of time it's taking and being told "we had other cases come in that we had to clear".. what am I? Garbage?! I am NOW told "we can offer a reduction in your next fee". NEXT FEE?! So this is the second time I am slapped with a larger bill than originally quoted? No! NO! NO WAY! Over 3 months have passed and nothing has been filed, the fees are rising,I ask to speak to the attorney and instead get to speak with "What was I doing again?" all of the time... I AM DONE! Be warned! In my experience, this was the worst decision I made in my life! I will now use ANOTHER attorney to take care of ME! What a HORRIBLE experience! HORRIBLE!!!! read more

TL; DR: Missed all the deadlines; the rude, miserable person who answers their emails would rather have a bad review than let me talk to someone about my problems with the service I got. WHAT A NIGHTMARE -- seemed like it could be a SCAM the whole time. Most of time, thought I was about to be ripped off. I got an email saying they have a deal for a patent search and patentability report for $249 which will be completed in 4-7 days with no further obligation. That seems like a good deal, so I call them up to see if it matches my needs. Went on immediate SCAM ALERT b/c when I first tell them I am trying to get a preliminary patent application prepared and she says that I can't have the deal because I am not intending to file a utility patent. The email I received says nothing of this, just "no further obligation" which she says isn't the case, you must be intending to file a utility patent or they won't do it. She implies that if I sign up for the deal without the intention (immediate, I assume) of filing for a patent, they could sue me. I don't understand how there can be no further obligation but also you must be intending to file a utility patent at the end of the process. Sounds like either she didn't get the memo or there is some kind of bait and switch going on here. Later, I think about it and decide that since I do have the intention of filing a patent, I can still, in good conscience, go through with it. I submit my paperwork expecting the search to be done in 4-7 days (there's a guarantee!). On day four, having heard nothing back from them at all, I email them only to find out that that haven't even looked at the paperwork or if they have, they've done NOTHING. Haven't even started the search!!! If they haven't even started on the search on day 4 of 7, what kind of quality can I expect to come from this search? What kind of depth will they go into? I guess I shouldn't expect much from $249, but why would you advertise that deal if the quality is going to be so low? At this point I am basically expecting that my money was completely wasted, but I will update this review if anything else comes of this terrible experience. --- Update 1 About two weeks after I submitted my documents, I called up to ask where my search was. Guaranteed 4-7 days, mind you. I spoke with the receptionist, she transferred me to the Search Department and I spoke with Mai. She had previously said my search would be done in 3-5 days (this was day 7 on that timeline) but that the search was done and she could send it to me but when I got upset and asked to speak to someone who could tell me what was going on, SHE HUNG UP ON ME and, OF COURSE, failed to send me my search results. Then they stopped answering my calls. This is what they think of paying customers. This is what they think of you. At this point, it seems like I am being definitely BEING SCAMMED. ---- Update 2: After the weekend, they finally delivered the search results and gave me some rigmarole about the guarantee applying to something else. Ugh. This is the pattern with these folks, They carefully word deals to SOUND good. If you do choose to work with them, be very careful about not assuming what they mean by terms like "No Further Obligation" and "Guarantee". I was still waiting for my patentability assessment, but when they noticed this review, they said they wouldn't finish the work I had paid for unless I removed this review: DIRECT QUOTE: "So, we will offer you the legal opinion assessment, but only if you agree to promptly remove the Yelp posting, and agree to not post such things again, including on any other website." Bwahahahahaaha! They are trying to EXTORT me into REMOVING MY REVIEW, by threatening not to complete the work I paid for. This seems like a rookie mistake. This is all from Abby, the rude woman who answers their phones who doesn't know what "No further obligation" means. ------- Update 3 I toned down the review, in hopes that Abby the guard dog would let me talk to someone more senior to talk about what happened. They ultimately did the work that I paid for, I guess it wasn't a scam, but it sure did feel it. In terms of the quality of the work, it seems like they did the work well enough. Not impressive, but they completed the work they said they'd do. This isn't a review of the work, it's a review of the TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE customer service that they offer. Abby shouldn't be allowed to talk to people. She showed no compassion, just aggression toward me and ambivalence towards my problems. Despite many requests, Abby would not let me speak to someone more senior to talk through the problem. I am absolutely stunned that they would rather have a bad review than a conversation. I would have totally rethought all this if they had just talked to me like a human being and acted like my problems mattered at all. read more

i got a really bad feeling about this company right from the start - only in a few minute long conversation with the woman whom I was put over to speak to when I just called. She was very evasive and unwilling to give me any idea of their pricing and i was being forced to disclose details of my inventions. I felt that this person was trying to dominate and snow me with a bunch of baffle gab. This company is the "night to day" opposite of Quick Patents which I have been with for a number of years and which I thought I'd do a bit of price comparison on. read more

Bay Area IP help me to get a patent that I filed a few years ago. Their price and quality is reasonable. Thank you.

I have to say that i would highly recommend BayArea IP to anyine needing a competant IP firm. They provide professioal service and go the extra mile without charging you any additional expenses. They offer several different packages that make filing a patent affordable for any entreprenuer. I look forward to them handling my next patent. Thanks BAIP Team read more

Bay area IP wrote my companies software patent in 2014. The patent has now been successfully defended and granted. The price that Bay area IP created this patent for is incredible value for money, a fraction of what other law firms would charge to write the patent document and perform the initial search. Yes Bay area IP is very busy so response times can be on the slow side, probably due to high demand because their prices are so economical but they produce quality patents at an amazing price (Frankly they could double their prices and still be an unbeatable deal). Can only speak to my experience, but I am grateful they offer these kinds of services to small businesses and startups. read more

This place is crap. You won't receive any emails from them because they all go to spam(big surprise). The disclosure you have to sign is sooo long and give them every opportunity to overcharge you. When you ask for a refund you won't get your money back. They will say they incurred costs and give you a fraction of what you paid back, if any. Don't waste your time or money. read more

These guys are great. I've just received my first patent allowance from the USPTO after more than a year of back and forth with them. Throughout the whole process Bay Area IP has helped me out whenever needed, expedited processing when asked and kept things affordable. The quality of the work is excellent, the staff are helpful and the emails they send are very comprehensive in explaining the horrifying legalese the USPTO sends me. I cannot recommend these guys more highly. I even have another patent pending with them! read more

I got the patent approval and Ariel S Bentolila did a through research and advice for my patent. The whole team team including Abby is awesome. read more

Excellent company! i highly recommend them. They are very efficient and help us to protect our intellectual property. Their system works quite well and are very affordable so we are able to protect our intellectual property which is the most important asset of every company. read more

Bay Area Ip helped me throughout the whole patent process, They answered all my questions and helped me to make my patent stronger and more effective. They were so much more affordable than most other patent companies, and their work was great. The only minor issue is that it took a little longer than initially thought, but patents are a huge process, and they made sure everything was right. I would recommend them to anyone who wants to patent their idea(s). read more

5 stars all the way! I am so pleased with my experience with Bay Area IP group. They provided very affordable pricing, creative ideas, very thorough work, and best of all they are very fast. True professionals through and through. I would highly recommend them to anyone in need of a patent. read more

I have used Bay Area IP to file 2 patents, and both were allowed! Mr. Bentoila is very capable of constructing the patents in a very defendable way, he is also very good at using the languages that the USPTO investigators can connect with, thus making the process smoother. In addition, the supporting staff is very professional and experienced in guiding the inventors through the process. I will definitely use them again in my next patent application read more

My experience started out good. I paid for the highest level of the prior art search. Bay Area IP did what they were supposed to, when they were supposed to. Wrote up my draft for me, explained everything, and answered any questions I had. After reviewing and amending the draft, they submitted the application for me. After about a year and a half of waiting on the USPTO, I received an action letter saying that prior art was found similar to what my patent was trying to accomplish. Not a big deal. I understand this comes with the territory so I pay again to have Bay Area IP write up a response. After another long wait, the USPTO sends me another letter for a final action. Bay Area IP says we need to wait before we can respond so they can take it through another process to try to get it approved. Fast forward about four months and I receive a letter of abandonment from the USPTO. I forward it to Bay Area IP, and still haven't heard from them. This is just my experience. I was very happy with their service at first, but then again, this was the first time I have ever tried to obtain a patent for anything. Update: They sure are quick to respond when they want you to edit your review. read more

They have excellent expertise with the formulation of patent claims. They spare no effort to explain to USPTO the most sophisticated details of the invention, and make sure the patent is allowed. The prices are reasonable. I have already received two patent through them, and I will use the firm in the future. read more

An Australian who required a USA Patent. How fortunate I came across Bay Area IP. I literally had been left out to dry by other Patent Attorneys and was very close to missing the deadline and going abandonment. Bay Area stepped in and professionally filed with time to spare. Down the track and Patent approved. Very happy with not only the results but the courtesy and sense of urgency that is rare in businesses these days. Happily recommend them for a professional outcome and a friendly experience. read more

Bay Area IP did a utility patent and it was recently allowed. They are keen on technologies and able to tell you the value of your inventions. They know every trick in the book and very familiar with the process. The fee is reasonable. Before the work begins, they send the instructions by email, which contains valuable information. Now I am looking to build a patent portfolio by filing a continuation-in-part. They advise me to keep the patent application chain alive to draw interest from investors for future venture business or patent licensing business. read more

Filing for a Patent is something I could not do myself. BAIP helped walk me through the steps that I needed to take and they carried the burden to see things through. I currently have Patent Pending Status. I have a couple of more steps to take to complete the process. BAIP stays on top of what I need to provide them and they make sure I don't fall through the cracks by missing a dead line date. read more

All I wanted was a comprehensive search. I completed my their easy description form and sent photos, and bam, they were on it like Ma Barker on a open safe. read more

I will be doing more than writing this review. The first draft I received made it very clear to me that no professional patent attorney ever spent any time on my patent. Maybe they thought that the 100+ pages of boilerplate that they included in the draft would impress me enough to pay the second half of the fee to proceed. But who ever they paid to write the specifics about my specific patent did such a terrible job, getting it so totally wrong, that it was clear I was not receiving what I paid for from a qualified patent attorney. I would not trust this company with any work. If they did not have time or energy for my particular case, they should have refused the case. I committed to $5000 and made it clear that I would pay $450/hour beyond that to get it perfected. That reduced fee was supposed to be because I agreed to work via email, not in person. Never again, I will look my next patent attorney in the eye to get his commitment. Yes it will cost much more, but the $2700 I paid up front here was a waste of time and money. read more

The company does terrible work! you should not go to them for your IP needs. After being with them for a number of years I moved to Thoughts to Paper. The staff at Bay Area IP doesn't care about helping you; they just take your money and don't help you at all. Trust me I know, "Bad company." read more

I wrote a patent application and submitted it to the USPTO. After about a year and a half I received an office action letter and called the examiner to talk about it. The examiner "suggested" that I find an attorney and have them amend the claims. Ariel amended the claims and went through a few more procedures for me including a telephone conference with the examiner. I received the notice of allowance from the USPTO a couple of weeks ago. Thank you Ariel, Nadia, & Abby. read more