The USPTO "Provisional Patent Program" is a valuable program that allows inventors patent protection for one year while they develop their invention and establish its value, before investing in a more permanent type patent. This is an important way to help inventors have more money available for invention development, rather than having to have more up-front money to invest in their patents, before having the opportunity to test-market their inventions.

The provisional patent program is an affordable program offered to inventors by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to protect inventions. The updated provisional patent program has in a sense replaced a former program discontinued by the USPTO that was called the "Disclosure Document Program". A provisional patent offers a trial period of market testing and selling your invention, before you follow through with one of three more permanent types of patents, which include a design patent (design for an article of manufacture); an industrial patent (a new and useful process of manufacture or composition of matter); or a plant patent (new asexually produced variety of plant).

A provisional patent protects your invention with full patent protection and allows you to place the "patent pending" notation on your packaging. Formerly, when inventors sent their invention description in to the USPTO under the disclosure document program, they would do so to establish a "date of conception", meaning proof of the date in which they established having invented it. This program, however, was not a protection for the invention as the provisional patent is and did not allow the inventor to place the patent pending notation on their invention and its packaging. This is the advantage the affordable provisional patent has over this other former low cost program.

The cost to "small entities" to secure a one year provisional patent is $100.00 as of the year 2007. The USPTO offers this provisional patent to small entities, meaning an individual or company that has less than 500 employees, for a nominal fee of only $100.00 (but please check the USPTO website for price updates). This is a very cost-effective price because you are allowed to test market and sell your invention for one year after notification that they have received and accepted your application. If during the one year, an inventor discovers that the invention does not merit following through with a more permanent patent, at a greater cost, he can allow the term to expire and forfeit the option to follow through with a further patenting process.

The provisional patent program is valuable in that an inventor can limit the amount invested in a patent should he choose to, or he can follow through in obtaining a longer term patent. If, during the year grace period, an inventor decides his invention is not worth obtaining a longer term patent for it (most are 14 years in duration), he can simply allow the provisional patent to lapse and he will have no further patenting costs. If, however, the value of the invention is proven during that year period, the inventor may choose to invest further into the patenting process and obtain a more permanent patent. The value of the 1-year grace period is that the worth/value of the invention can be established, without risk of theft of the inventor's product-invention. It is also valuable in that an inventor may pursue a licensing (royalty agreement) during that one year grace period and if any further patenting is done, it would be the responsibility of the licensee (one paying you royalties on sales), should the inventor secure a license agreement before the one year period has expired.

The USPTO website gives detailed information about the provisional patent program and also gives instructions on how to apply for one, plus the address to which you send your application for an invention. Simply use "USPTO" in a google search.