The Usefulness of the Provisional Patent for the Small Business

Just because you're a small business doesn't mean you need to sacrifice patenting your ideas. Most lawyers won't tell you to file what's known as a PROVISIONAL patent application. This is an application that can be filed for a minimal cost - $80 in filing fees and about an hour's worth of attorney time - that can help you get a priority date and give you up to a year to determine whether that idea is worth spending upwards of 5K to get a regular (non-provisional) application on file with the PTO. If the idea's worthy, great! If not, you lose approximately $400. Not a bad investment.

See also the SFGate.com article, Inventors patent ideas to pre-empt their rivals, by Benjamin Pimentel which discusses the "legal tactic called "offensive blocking patents" in which businesses or individual entrepreneurs use patents not so much as tools to build new products, but as legal roadblocks or bargaining chips against competitors or corporate giants."

Category: IP Law Advisor