Provisional Application for Patent

What you'll get

The USPTO's page on the provisional application: a lower-cost first filing that needs no formal claims, gives you an early filing date and lets you say patent pending, but must be followed by a regular application within 12 months, a window the page says cannot be extended. It also warns that showing, selling or publishing your invention before you file starts a one-year clock at home and may end your rights abroad, and that some invention-promotion firms leave inventors with only a provisional, so read it before you launch or crowdfund, and use the USPTO fee schedule for current fees.