Provisional patent. Priority date + 12-month window.

A provisional patent application is a lower-cost, informal filing that establishes an early filing date for your invention and lets you use patent pending for up to twelve months while you prepare a full application. It does not itself become a patent. We explain how it fits your invention's path and the business structure around it.

Twelve months: a provisional gives you a year from filing to submit a full (non-provisional) application claiming its date, after which the provisional expires and cannot be extended. Missing the window forfeits the early date. We flag the deadline so the follow-up filing is not lost to the clock.

It secures an early filing date and lets you say patent pending, which can deter copycats and preserve your priority while you refine or seek funding, but it grants no enforceable patent rights on its own until a full patent issues. We help you understand what it does and does not give you before you rely on it.

It is cheaper and faster than a full application, locks in your priority date, and buys a year to test the market, raise money, or improve the invention before committing to the full cost. For many inventors it is a smart first step. We can point you to patent counsel and handle the entity that will own the IP.

No: you must file a full non-provisional application within the twelve months, and that application, not the provisional, goes through examination to become a granted patent. The provisional is a placeholder, not a patent. We flag the timeline so the conversion step is not missed.

The government filing fee is modest, especially for small entities, though preparing a solid provisional with enough detail often benefits from professional help. The bigger cost comes later with the full application. We keep the business side, entity ownership of the IP, handled while you invest in the filing.

Usually yes: holding the invention in an LLC or corporation rather than personally cleans up licensing, investment, and liability, and investors expect IP to sit in the entity. Assigning the invention to the company matters. We form and structure the entity so it can properly own the patent.

Public disclosure can jeopardize your patent rights, especially abroad, and start a limited grace-period clock in the US, so filing at least a provisional before disclosing is safer. Talking to investors or showing a product too early is a common mistake. We can point you to counsel on timing and handle the entity setup.

We form and structure the entity that will own your invention and IP, which matters for a provisional and everything after, and can point you to patent professionals for the filing. Getting ownership in the right entity early avoids messy assignments later, and we set that up.