Weak internal material. When the technical documentation has to be created rather than gathered, and when the manager writing the description needs several rounds of guidance, the professional time multiplies. Government filing fees are separate and should be read from the current USCIS fee schedule.
Preparation inside the company reduces the legal bill
The most economical version of this process is one where the company gathers its own material against a clear list, and counsel spends its time on the legal framing rather than on interviewing people to find out what the systems do. Ask the adviser for that list at the start, name someone internally to own it, and set a date. Where the company is unwilling to commit that time, be realistic that the cost simply moves rather than disappearing, and that a file assembled reluctantly tends to invite further requests. Ask for the scope to distinguish the evidence-gathering support from the drafting, so the company can see what it would save by doing its own part properly.
Hypothetical example: Riku's custom-orthotics manufacturer wants to save money by asking each engineer to find their own evidence. An opening assessment identifies which documents the business controls and which the employee must obtain, then prices confidential-document handling separately. Project assignments, internal procedures, and payroll history settle most core points. Spend first on determining whether the knowledge is truly company-specific, because that answer controls the value of the rest of the collection. Costs rise when a company realizes late that a key assertion is unsupported and has to recreate a technical history. A focused evidence list gives technical staff a manageable task instead of a request for everything.