What to Do After Your Patent Is Granted: A Checklist

Once your patent is granted, download and check the official electronic grant, put the three maintenance-fee deadlines on your calendar (3.5, 7.5 and 11.5 years after grant for utility patents), start marking your products, and ignore official-looking bills that do not come from the USPTO. Then decide what the patent is for: protecting a product, licensing, selling, or simply telling people what you invented.

This guide is general information, not legal advice; talk to your patent attorney about your situation.

1. Download, check and store the grant

Since April 18, 2023, the USPTO has issued patents electronically. The eGrant in Patent Center is the official grant, and you can download and print it as often as you like. Paper is now optional:

• Ceremonial copy. For patents granted on or after March 9, 2026, the USPTO mails a free ceremonial paper copy only if the applicant opted in, normally by checking a box on the issue-fee form.
• Presentation copy. A certified copy of the front page with a ribbon and seal, meant for framing, sold by the USPTO Certified Copy Center.
• Commemorative cover. Patents published between March 17 and December 29, 2026 carry a special eGrant cover marking America's 250th anniversary.

Then proofread the patent. Check inventor names, the owner (assignee), the title and the claim text against what was allowed. Clerical or typographical mistakes can be fixed with a certificate of correction: free if the USPTO made the error, for a fee if the applicant did.

Write down when the patent should expire. A utility patent generally runs 20 years from the earliest non-provisional US filing date it claims, plus any patent term adjustment printed on the front page. A design patent from an application filed on or after May 13, 2015 runs 15 years from grant. The USPTO publishes a patent term calculator if you want to check the math.

2. Docket the maintenance fees

Utility and reissue patents lapse unless you pay maintenance fees. Design and plant patents have none.

Fee amounts change, and small and micro entities pay less, so check the current USPTO fee schedule rather than an old article. Pay through the USPTO maintenance-fee portal or your registered patent practitioner.

Keep your fee address or correspondence address current. The USPTO mails a reminder if you miss the surcharge-free window, but it says a missing notice does not shift the job of tracking deadlines to the USPTO. If a patent does lapse, a petition to accept late payment is possible when the delay was unintentional; ask your attorney quickly.

Before each payment, ask whether the patent still earns its keep. Letting one lapse can be a sound business decision, as long as you make it on purpose.

3. Mark your products

Under 35 U.S.C. § 287(a), you give public notice by putting "patent" or "pat." and the number on the product or its packaging. Virtual marking is also allowed: "pat." plus a free-to-access web address that links each product to its patent numbers.

Marking matters because, without it, damages generally start only once an infringer has actual notice. Courts have required marking to be "substantially consistent and continuous" once it starts. A good virtual-marking page lists products by name or model with the patents that cover each one, and you update it as products and patents change.

Do not mark products the patent does not cover. False marking is prohibited under 35 U.S.C. § 292, though marking a product with an expired patent that once covered it is not a violation. Use "patent pending" only while an application is actually pending. If you license the patent, ask your attorney how licensees should mark.

4. Watch for misleading solicitations

Your grant is public, and companies mine that data. Expect invoice-style letters, "registry" offers and imitation USPTO emails. Official USPTO mail comes from Alexandria, Virginia 22313, and official email ends in @uspto.gov. No routine maintenance fee can be paid until three years after grant. See our guide to post-grant scams.

5. Decide now on continuations and reissue

Two options close on the calendar. A continuation application must be filed while an earlier application in the family is still pending, so once the last one issues, that door is shut. A reissue that broadens the claims must be filed within two years of grant. If you think your claims missed something, raise it with your attorney now.

6. Protecting the invention abroad

Foreign rights depend on what you filed earlier. The Paris Convention gives 12 months from your first filing to file in other countries (6 months for designs). A PCT application usually has to enter national phases by 30 months from the priority date. If neither route was used, your published US application or patent usually counts as prior art elsewhere, and foreign protection is often no longer available.

7. Tell the world

A grant is news. Add it to the Patents section of your LinkedIn profile, your website and your bio. Send a note to your local paper, alumni magazine or trade association. Share the main drawing with a one-sentence explanation. PatentFilm makes a free instant trailer of any US patent granted since about 2001, which is a quick way to show people what you invented. Our guide to marketing your patent goes further.

8. Plan how the patent will earn

A patent gives you the right to exclude others from making, using, selling or importing the claimed invention. It does not by itself give you the right to make it. Your options are to sell your own product, license the patent, or sell it. If ownership changes, record the assignment at the USPTO; an unrecorded assignment can be void against a later buyer unless it is recorded within three months or before that purchase. For free help, try a Patent and Trademark Resource Center library or a SCORE mentor. Be wary of invention-promotion firms that want large upfront fees. When you pitch, our guide to explaining your patent to investors will help.

Sources

• USPTO, Maintain your patent: https://www.uspto.gov/patents/maintain
• USPTO, MPEP 2506, Times for submitting maintenance fees: https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s2506.html
• USPTO fee schedule: https://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/fees-and-payment/uspto-fee-schedule
• USPTO, eGrants and eCofCs: https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center/egrants
• USPTO, Opt-in for courtesy ceremonial copies (February 2026): https://www.uspto.gov/subscription-center/2026/opt-option-courtesy-ceremonial-copies-egrants
• USPTO, Order certified copies (presentation copies): https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/checking-application-status/order-certified-copies
• USPTO, Managing a patent: https://www.uspto.gov/patents/basics/manage
• USPTO, Report on Virtual Marking (2014): https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/aia_implementation/VMreport.pdf
• USPTO, Non-USPTO solicitations: https://www.uspto.gov/patents/basics/using-legal-services/scam-prevention/non-uspto-solicitations
• 35 U.S.C. § 120, 154, 173, 251, 255, 261, 287 and 292 (Cornell LII): https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/35
• WIPO, PCT FAQs: https://www.wipo.int/pct/en/faqs/faqs.html
• WIPO, Summary of the Paris Convention: https://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/paris/summary_paris.html
• USPTO, Patent and Trademark Resource Centers: https://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/support-centers/patent-and-trademark-resource-centers-ptrcs