The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average temperatures for the quarter of the year centered on February. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day.
The average time it takes to obtain a patent from the patent office at this time is about 32 months or a little under 3 years. [See the current wait time statistics at the USPTO website [ here ] (best viewed with Internet Explorer)].
Once a patent is issued, a maintenance fee must be paid on the 4th, 8th, and 12th anniversaries of the date of issuance. You have to pay maintenance fees. http://www.uspto.gov/patents/process/maintain.jsp Also, patents are not self-enforcing.