Provisional Patents- An Inventor's Best friend

2008-03-22T00:47:00.000-07:00

Inventors are a different breed.
We look at the world in a different way than non-inventors.
Plus we get irritated more easily, which is what drives us to make things better.
But there is one word that truly describes inventors.....Paranoid!
Every single inventor that I have ever talked to is worried that someone else is going to steal their invention.
And they should be.
Any discerning, responsible person would never giver their bank account card and pin number to another person that they didn't know or trust.
Why not? Because it has value. An invention is like a check written in invisible ink, you have no idea what the hidden value of the check is until it is cashed.
An invention may have little or no value, or it may be worth millions of dollars.
Inventors want to make sure that they are the ones who cash that invisible check and rightfully so, because it is their invention.

Protecting Your Invention

Ok, now the important stuff.
Filing a patent application with the USPTO, (United States Patent and Trademark Office), is the best way to ensure that your invention will not be stolen, manufactured, sold, and profited from by someone else.
However, patents are also expensive. Pricing, including attorney fees, can range from about $2500-$7000 for a utility application. Design patents are less, about $1200-$3000, but offer an inventor less protection as well.
Now here is a good question.
Why would you pay $2500 or more for a safe or security box to protect your invisible ink check that is worth only $5?
Doesn’t it make more sense to try to determine the value of your invention BEFORE you spend all that money to protect it?
Being the paranoid inventor your first question is….
”But how can I show it to anyone to determine its value if it is not protected?”
By filing a Provisional Patent Application with the USPTO.
A Provisional Application will cost between $300-$800 to have it written and filed with the Patent Office.
It establishes a filing date and gets you in line at the Patent Office to ask for the exclusive rights to your invention. Now you can talk to manufacturers, investors, prototype companies, retailers, licensing companies, etc. and show them what your invention is and what it does. Anyone who sees your invention and tries to steal it and file their own patent will be in line AFTER you at the Patent Office.
Now you have 1 year from your filing date to determine the estimated value of your invention.
If you show your invention to everyone under the sun and no one is interested, then the reality is that it may not be that good. In fact it may be terrible. You have determined that your invention has little or no value and you simply let the Provisional Patent 1 year period expire.
Now aren’t you glad that you didn’t spend $5000 on a patent.

However if Walmart wants to license and manufacture your invention and put it in every store in the USA, then it would be safe to assume that your invention is worth more than the $2500-$7000 cost of filing a Non-Provisional patent, and you can make that decision with more assurance and confidence, knowing that your invention has some value.

This is the benefit of filing a Provisional patent, it lets you find out if you have the next “Yo-Yo”, or the next flop BEFORE you risk thousands of dollars.

There are professional inventors who file 20 or more provisional applications each year hoping to license or sell just one of their ideas to an existing company that makes similar products.
The provisional patent is the best tool that an inventor can use when they are trying to determine the hidden value of their invention.
Never give up, ever. One invention that makes it to the shelves of a large retailer like Home Depot, or that gets aired on QVC, can turn anyone into an inventor for life.
All it takes is one.

Straight from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Since June 8, 1995, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has offered inventors the option of filing a provisional application for patent which was designed to provide a lower-cost first patent filing in the United States and to give U.S. applicants parity with foreign applicants under the GATT Uruguay Round Agreements.
A provisional application for patent is a U. S. national application for patent filed in the USPTO under 35 U.S.C. §111(b). It allows filing without a formal patent claim, oath or declaration, or any information disclosure (prior art) statement. It provides the means to establish an early effective filing date in a non-provisional patent application filed under 35 U.S.C. §111(a). It also allows the term "Patent Pending" to be applied.
A provisional application for patent (provisional application) has a pendency lasting 12 months from the date the provisional application is filed. The 12-month pendency period cannot be extended. Therefore, an applicant who files a provisional application must file a corresponding non-provisional application for patent (non-provisional application) during the 12-month pendency period of the provisional application in order to benefit from the earlier filing of the provisional application. In accordance with 35 U.S.C. §119(e), the corresponding non-provisional application must contain or be amended to contain a specific reference to the provisional application.

How To Protect Your Invention

Provisional Patents- An Inventor's Best friend