A note before you start
None of this is legal advice. The tools below give estimates and look-ups, and the law changes by place and by year. They're built to help you walk into a lawyer's office, or a negotiation, knowing the basics instead of nothing.
Everything runs in your browser. You don't need to share personal details to use any of it.
Severance negotiation calculator
Layoffs are scary, and the first offer is often not the last. The calculator compares the package you've been offered with a tenure-based benchmark. It adds lines for COBRA health coverage and unvested equity, so you see the real value of the deal.
A common pattern is one or two weeks of pay per year of service. Senior staff and people laid off in a group sometimes get more. Your offer might be fair, or it might leave money behind.
Before you sign, read what you're giving up. Severance usually comes with a release of claims. If you think you were treated unfairly, speak to an employment lawyer first. Many offer a short, low-cost review of severance agreements.
The tool ends with a checklist of things worth asking for: a longer health coverage period, a neutral reference, accelerated vesting, outplacement help and agreement on how your departure is described.
Patent cost estimator
Patents cost more than most inventors expect. The estimator walks through USPTO fees from filing to grant, including search, examination, issue fees and the maintenance fees due at 3.5, 7.5 and 11.5 years after grant.
Entity size changes the price. Small entities pay less than large ones, and micro entities pay less still. The tool shows your savings, and there's an option to add international filing costs.
Government fees are only part of it. Attorney fees often run many times larger, especially for drafting and responding to office actions. Treat the USPTO number as a floor.
Trademark search
Before you print a logo or buy a domain, check whether someone already owns a similar mark. The USPTO trademark search tool queries the official database and shows live application and registration records.
Look for names that sound alike or look alike, not just exact matches. Similar goods and services also matter. A restaurant called Delta and an airline called Delta can coexist, but two airlines can't.
A clean search is not a guarantee. Unregistered marks can have rights too, and the examiner decides what counts as confusingly similar. For anything important, ask a trademark attorney.
Statute of limitations lookup
Every legal claim has a clock. Wait too long and the court won't hear it, however strong your case is. The lookup covers 50 states plus DC and seven common claim types. Enter the state, claim and the date the issue happened.
It shows the deadline and the days left. A discovery rule toggle handles claims where the clock starts when you found out about the harm, not when it happened.
Deadlines can be shorter than you think. Claims against government bodies often need a written notice within a few months. And some situations pause or extend the clock. Don't wait until the last week.
NNN versus gross lease calculator
Commercial leases hide costs. In a gross lease, the landlord covers property taxes, insurance and maintenance. In a triple net lease, you pay those on top of base rent. The base rent looks lower under NNN, but the total may not be.
The calculator compares the full occupancy cost of each over the lease term, with a year-by-year table and a cumulative chart. Add tenant improvement allowances and free rent months to see how they change the result.
Ask the landlord for past operating expense records. If taxes or repairs jump, NNN tenants take the hit.
Using the results
Write down what each tool tells you and bring it to your meeting. A lawyer can work faster, and charge less, when you've done your homework.
Laws and fees update. Check official sources for the latest figures before you file anything.
Getting the most from a lawyer
If you decide to talk to one, come prepared. Bring the numbers from the tool, the documents and a short written timeline. It saves billable hours and gets you a more useful answer. Ask for a fee estimate up front.
Know where the tool stops
These calculators help you prepare. They don't replace a lawyer. Rules differ by country, state and contract, so treat any result as a starting figure and get advice before acting on a deadline or a sum that matters.