Patent pending : provisional vs non-provisional patents

How many times have you seen a product that made you go “I could have thought of that”, or “why didn’t I think of that?”. Personally, I have many times. Watching shows like shark tank really inspired me to be bolder with my ideas. If not why not? I barely have anything to loose. We live in the Information Age, that means you can learn to do most things with information already freely available on the internet.
So far , here’s what I’ve learned in this process:

• I need a patent to protect my idea.

There are two types of patents that you can file for:
A provisional patent and
A non provisional patent.
A provisional patent is not legally binding and lasts up to 18 months. It gives you the right to label a product patent pending.
Knowing that it’s not legally binding can be discouraging, however, after filing a non-provisional patent, you can sue someone who “stole” your idea...right after you get your provisional patent. You will be compensated IF you win the case.

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A non-provisional patent on the other hand is a legally binding document. It’s more costly to acquire and can protect your idea for about 20 years, depending on your country.

Here are some more advantages that come with a provisional patent

• You can file more provisional patents with new improvements to your product with time.
• Its much cheaper and you can sell your rights to the patent to a company for royalty.
• With a patent pending status, you can commence selling your product with more confidence.
• You can issue copies of your patent pending letter to infringing competitors to tell them to back off.

References

Koh Aileen. 2018. How to protect ideas during patent pending. Retrieved from https://everynda.com/blog/how-protect-ideas-patent-pending/

Upcounsel. 2018. How to file a provisional patent: Everything You Need to Know. Retrieved from
https://www.upcounsel.com/how-to-file-a-provisional-patent