Getting Started in Patents
What does it mean to get a “provisional patent”? I’m glad you asked that.
WE hear that term a lot now and, unless you KNOW what it means. It could be
confusing. A “provisional patent” is a fairly new type of patent developed by
the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) so that someone can get a placeholder in the line of patent applicants. Plus, you get to use the
words “Patent Pending” on your invention. They do not pass or judge on the patentability of the application but the holder of a provisional patent is
protected from theft when negotiating with someone to produce the invention. A provisional patent is good for one year only and you must use that time to
either assign your patent rights or apply for a regular patent. That’s pretty
much the entire concept of the “provisional” in “provisional patent”.
With the protection of the provisional patent, you can reveal the secrets of
your idea to prospective purchasers. You will want to have several companies or people with good resources bidding for the rights to your invention and, when you sell to the highest bidder, THEY will pay for the regular patent filing
and you bank the cash. Then you will sit back and collect royalties later as
your invention sells.
If you are a true do-it-yourselfer, you can go the the USPTO web site (www.uspto.gov) and wade through the hundreds of forms and instructions for
the hours and hours it takes and figure out what to do. If you have the time
to spare, that may be the way to go. If not, there are some other ways you
could get your provisional patent.
There are services on the web that will fill in and file the forms for you. You have to input the information on their web site and that information is entered by them into the correct forms and after you pay the fee (maybe $80 to $120) the forms are submitted for you. Alternatively, lawyers will do the work but are generally very expensive. Finally, there are downloadable kits available and some even are reuseable many times for a relatively small fee.
No one can guarantee success when you have to interact with a government
agency but by using a kit that someone else has used successfully will be a big step up and will help a lot. Use a search engine on the internet and try
to find a “provisional patent kit”. Start your research there and you will be well on your way to getting the right to use the term “Patent Pending”.
The following Provisional Patent Application Kit is recommended by the author. For an informative article on How to Write a Provisional Patent, click this link.
