Why Patent Attorneys Hate the Provisional Patent Application
Why Patent Attorneys Hate the Provisional Patent Application.. ANSWER: They do not make much money when they file them for you. They will almost ALWAYS tell you that you should file a non-provisional patent application. Let me show you why they should NOT tell you this… And why you should not deal with those who make such claims.. Find another attorney IMMEDIATELY!
I am here to tell you that those attorneys who make those claims are un-scrupulous and should be more honest. However, there ARE super smart attorneys who will COMPLETELY support you for a very fair price to file a provisional patent application. The reason.. If they help you with your provisional patent application and they charge you a fair price they know that you will surely COME BACK to them when you are ready to file your non-provisional patent application! No brainer, right? This is one reason Why Patent Attorneys Hate the Provisional Patent Application.
The un scrupulous attorneys will likely say a provisional patent application worthless is because in order for a patent application to be useful it must be complete at the time of filing. Well duh! The MAIN reason they do not like provisional patent applications is that they can not justify their high fees on an application that only costs $125 to file and that the provisional patent application offers ZERO dollars to the attorney because there are no “office actions” that make them the bulk of their money. Trust me, Congress WANTS you to patent your idea because if you make a million dollars on it THEY will collect TAX from YOU. The provisional patent application is an extraordinary choice for you if funds are of concern and you are of the mind that you can find a partner within one year.
Also, your provisional patent application is the first part of your journey to a non-provisional patent application. As such, you must describe your inventive idea so that one “skilled in the art” or someone familiar with the technology (as well as a fifth grader) could both make and use the invention having only read YOUR provisional patent application. Please note that your provisional patent application is NOT public, so nobody else can ever read it! However, if they were given a chance to read it they should be able make it and use it. In other words, your provisional patent application must explain your invention with as much detail as possible and even with the level of detail and explanation that would be included in an extraordinary instruction manual that describes both the use and exactly how to make your inventive idea. Your drawings do NOT have to be professional. They could be scribble sketches. As long as someone could use them to figure out your inventive idea your sketches are sufficient. It does NOT hurt to have beautiful sketches though! Heck, go to your local High School and ask the art teacher who the best artist for line drawings is and give the kid a gift card to McDonalds to draw your drawings for you!
This level of detail is EXACTLY what is required in a non provisional patent application, so when an attorney tells you to file a non-provisional patent application because of these reasons just be aware that the EXACT same reasons hold for a non-provisional patent application. You can NOT add “new matter” to a provisional patent application as well as you can NOT add “new matter” to a provisional patent application. Attorneys will “trick” you telling you they are different, they are different in that the provisional is MUCH LESS formal and as such you have the latitude to explain MORE than you EVER would in a non-provisional patent application. This has EXTRAORDINARY benefits when it comes time to convert.
Please understand that any attorney worth his salt will be able to write both a provisional or a non provisional very quickly and not have to suffer many “Office Actions” However, the fact of the matter is just about EVERY attorney relies on these “Office Actions” for the bulk of their billing income. The number of “Office Actions” are a measure of how often the “teacher” (the USPTO) corrects “your” (your attorney) paper for spelling and syntax errors. Do you believe that an EXTRAORDINARY patent attorney knows enough to NOT make spelling and syntax errors? Really… Anyway, attorneys HATE it when I mention this! If you want you can get “file wrappers” for every patent any patent attorney has ever filed. With these you can actually see how “good” an attorney is. A good attorney will always get your “free” 20 claims with the fewest “Office Actions” thereby meaning at the lowest cost to you. Yet another reason Why Patent Attorneys Hate the Provisional Patent Application!
What the provisional patent application provides is it gives you is TIME and it does so at a very low cost. The Provisional patent application allows you one year (there is even a provision to file “missing parts” to extend this to 2 years!) to find a partner and further develop your inventive idea. Frequently, the partner you choose will want to use their own patent attorney to file the non provisional patent application so you actually NEVER have to pay for the expense of a non-provisional patent application.
Anything that is not included in the provisional patent application is not considered to be a part of your invention. Duh!, right? For this reason you will frequently hear patent attorneys tell you that a provisional patent application is helpful ONLY to protect whatever is included in the application . In other words the provisional patent application is only as good as the level of detail you include, which is why you want to not only describe your invention but also any possible alternatives and variations that are known to you at the time of filing. Same with a non-provisional patent application. So if you are ready to file ANY patent and you have a low budget there is ABSOLUTELY no reason to file a non-provisional patent application. None, period!
When you prepare and file your provisional patent application you must make sure that you cover not only what you have specifically invented, but you must include any and all alterations and variations that you can imagine that may be contemplated by a competitor because if and when you start making money you may see competitors why try to copy your inventive idea. In the “art” this is referred to as the “preferred embodiment” which should include extensive details of the inventive idea. Smart competitors will attempt not to infringe on your inventive rights, which means they will seek to compete as closely and as directly as possible but in a way that they feel does not technically and literally mimic your invention. Variations and alternatives are crucial to any patent application and provisional patent applications are no exception and when you file your provisional patent application you will want to ANTICIPATE what others might do to copy your idea and cover that in your provisional patent application.
It is therefore very important that you include any and all alternatives and variations can be included in your provisional patent application even if they are not ideal or fully developed, and even if they do not work very well or you do not know HOW they will EVER work. This is where inventors frequently make big mistakes. Why would anyone want to do something that may not work or even try to patent something that is not fully developed?
The answer is, drumroll please, there is plenty of money to be made selling inferior products! You want a patent that covers what works best as well as what may work and what may not work because of technology has not caught up with your inventive ideas implementation! The provisional patent application allows you to do this! You CAN NOT cover more than one inventive idea in a non-provisional patent! The ABSOLUTE beauty of a provisional patent application is that it can be viewed as an inexpensive “insurance policy” as well as an extraordinary “defensive document” to anticipate having to deal with “Office Actions”. VERY FEW attorneys will EVER tell you this. In fact, your provisional patent may “spin off” many independent patentable ideas with one single submission! Another reason Why Patent Attorneys Hate the Provisional Patent Application?
You have surely heard that if you were the first to invent the automobile you would want to have your patent cover the Yugo version, the Rolls Royce version and the Ferrari version and everything in between. As such, you must think of your invention not only as what works best, what may work, what marginally works as well as what may work 12 years from now when the technology catches up!
So, guys and gals.. This is why patent attorneys hate the Provisional Patent Application. As such I suggest that you file your provisional patent application yourself using the Provisional Patent Video Course so that you can learn EXACTLY what you need to file an extraordinary provisional patent application. You should even buy the Provisional Patent Video Course even if you find a great attorney as following the course will save you thousands because you will go to your attorney completely prepared.
