Patent legal expenses

[grayml57]

I was granted a patent in 2019. Are the legal expenses deductible that were paid in 2017, 2018 and 2019 deductible or are only the legal expenses paid in 2019 deductible? I have TurboTax premier and where would I enter the information?

[AlanT222]

You would deduct the expense in the year the expense was incurred, provide the expense was a business expense.  

[CynthiaB1]

What if the patent is not part of a business yet? It was designed and paid for due to a hobby.

[Carl]

It was designed and paid for due to a hobby.

It is my understanding that hobby expenses are not deductible. So I would interpret that to mean your legal expenses related to that patent (since it is/was a hobby) are not deductible either.