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For the Independent Inventor

Patents are expensive, so filing a patent application is only recommended if you have a plan for commercializaing your invention. An invention can be commercialized by manufacturing and distributing the product yourself or by licensing. Both are very difficult.

Provisional Patent Applications were introduced by the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) in 1995. They offer a lower cost method of obtaining "patent pending" status while evaluating your idea, preparing to market the idea, or searching for a company to license your idea. Filing a provisional application can also effectively add up to a year to the life of your patent.

However, provisional patent applications only have a one year lifetime. Before that one year evaluation period ends you must file a regular (non-provisional) application to maintain patent pending status. On the other hand, if the idea does not pan out during that year, and you decide to abandon before filing the non-provisional application, you avoid most of the cost. For further information on how to effectively take advantage of this feature in patent law, read the article, "The Provisional Application," by Ed Zimmer. 

A full description of provisional patent applications can be found at this U.S. Patent and Trademark Office link.