Law Office of James Marc Leas 37 Butler Drive South Burlington, VT 05403 USA Tel: 802-864-1575 Fax: 802-864-9319 Cell: 802-734-8811 email: jimmy@vermontpatentlawyer.com IMPORTANT NOTE: Information on this web site is for general information purposes and does not constitute legal advice. The accuracy of information posted on the links to other sites is not guaranteed. Use of the web site will not establish an attorney-client relationship. Such a relationship will be established only when there is a signed letter of engagement. Feel free to send comments or questions by phone or e-mail but please do not send confidential information in any initial contact.

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.

A provisional application can be submitted to the PTO by a very knowledgeable inventor without help from a patent lawyer. James can meet with you to:

• Let you know what commercially valuable claims appear to be available
• Help you determine what description and drawings to include in your provisional application to support those claims.

James can then review your work before you submit the provisional application to the PTO to ensure that the application meets patent law requirements to support commercially valuable claims.

Helping you prepare a provisional application may involve 3 to 6 hours of attorney time, substantially less than the 15 to 40 hours required for a non-provisional application. Virtually all of the time James spends helping you prepare the provisional will save time in later preparing the non-provisional application. A provisional application, if properly done, can be a substantial benefit to the independent inventor by delaying or avoiding cost. However, even filing a provisional application is only recommended if a plan is in place to commercialize.