A provisional application for patents is a low cost alternative to applying for a non-provisional patent. This is a preliminary stage before getting a full patent and it is supposed to give you a grace period of about twelve months so that one may test their product out in the market beforehand.
Provisional applications for patents are quite useful for some types of innovations. They provide protection to your invention while you are developing it even further. By filing a provisional application for a patent, you are effectively establishing a filing date for your invention without having to go through the rigors of a formal no-provisional application. There are several things that come with provisional applications for patents.
The provisional applications for patents go without any examination. They tend to be used to establish a date for filing the invention that an individual has come up with. After twelve months have elapsed, the application is abandoned automatically. To go through the examination process, one would have to file for a non-provisional; application for a patent. This should be done within a year of the provisional application being filed. There are professional patenting companies, such as InventHelp, that can help you with that.
By filing a date using a provisional application, the inventor is getting sufficient time to test their invention on the public. This is an advantage as it enables one to tweak the invention until it is fool proof. During this one year, the inventor can remedy any faults that the invention has. At the end of the twelve months, the inventor can then decide whether the invention deems a non-provisional patent application or decide whether the invention needs to be shelved and come up with a new one.
Provisional applications for patents tend to be much cheaper than non-provisional applications. This is largely due to the fact that provisional applications need less time to file. In addition to this, the filing requirements are also much simpler. This process cuts costs for the individual as the extra fees are deferred until one applies for a non-provisional patent application. One will also find that provisional applications tend to be processed much faster than their non-provisional counterparts. This is a plus especially if one would like to establish a filing date in the quickest time possible.
Once an individual has their provisional patent application approved and they are satisfied with their invention, they can start marketing it before the twelve months are complete. They would be required to utilize the term “patent pending” on the invention though until the non-provisional patent application is approved. You can find more information about this from https://azbigmedia.com/business/why-new-inventors-turn-to-inventhelp-for-support/.
