Thoughts to Paper

Answer: You should apply for a patent application first. This secures your place in line with the US Patent Office so you can tell the company you pitch to that your product is "patent pending". This way, if that company steals your idea and files a patent of their own, they will be second in line after you, since you applied for the patent application first. A provisional patent application only lasts for 12 months though, and it must be converted to a non-provisional patent app before the 12 month expires, to keep the protection. However, this route of the provisional patent app, at least gives you 12 months to test the waters before you need to decide to commit to a full more expensive non-provisional app. Give us a call during normal business hours and we'll be happy to answer any further questions or get you started.

Answer: Roberto, yes, you could file a provisional application first and get 12 months to figure more details out. However, keep in mind that the provisional application can only protect what you include in the application, the information you have already figured out. For example, if you only have a basic idea and the details are unknown, you could file the provisional application for just the idea without the details yet. However, those details would not be protected in the application because they are not disclosed in the application. Put more simply, you can only protect what you know and put into the provisional application. What this means is, lets say you file the provisional application then 2 months later you figure out some critical details of your invention. You must be careful about disclosing those details you figured out 2 months after filing the provisional application. Because those details were not included in the provisional application, they are not protected yet. We would add those details when you convert the provisional application into a non-provisional application and only then, would those details be protected. We offer a professional level service for the provisional patent application which allows you to chat with one of our engineers. We can help you figure out a bit more detail than you may have so that you file a provisional application with as much detail as we can figure out at this time. This ensures that your provisional application covers as much as we can. Any additional details you figure out later, well put it into the non-provisional patent application when you decide to file that application, prior to the expiration of your provisional application. Hope that helps! Give us a ring during normal business hours and well be happy to help!