What is a Provisional Patent Application and how might that help me, an independent inventor?
A provisional patent application is exactly that, an application. It will never result in an actual patent unless you convert it to a regular utility patent application. There are advantages to filing a provisional patent application if your product is ready for licensing (i.e. a thorough patent and market search has been done, a working prototype exists, and an analysis of cost of manufacturing vs. retail selling price has been done). It is also a good idea to have a professional product evaluation performed by a legitimate source (NOT THE COMPANIES YOU SEE ADVERTISED ON RADIO, TV AND IN PRINT!). The filing fee for a provisional patent application is only $100 (significantly less than the filing fee for a regular utility patent application). The beauty of the PPA is that it allows you to legally state that your product is “patent pending” from the moment you drop your application into a U.S. mailbox. You are then ready to present your product to potential licensees with some degree of
