What is a Small Entity?

According to the U.S Patent and Trademark Office, a small entity can be a for-profit company with 500 or fewer employees, a nonprofit organization or an independent inventor. A small entity pays reduced fees (50% discount) to the Patent Office for many of their filing fees. It used to be that you had to file a special form declaring that you were a small entity in order to pay the reduced fees. Now, the Patent Office will accept any written reference that you are a small entity and several of the forms that you will be using to communicate with the Patent Office have a check box that will indentify you as a small entity, and are considered written references. (example 1, example 2)