Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

How useful is a provisional patent application?  Is it a good idea or not?  I have an idea for a product and am currently researching whether or not it is patentable.  This product is something that I could start out manufacturing and selling on my own.  Would filing for a PPA (assuming the idea is patentable) and beginning to try to sell the product on my own to gauge its potential success be a good idea, or is it better just apply for the patent and skip the PPA?  I don`t really have much money to invest in this, and I know filing for a patent is expensive...

Hello NYinNC - I`m not an attorney - seek legal counsel.  It will be the best $ you ever spend.  My personal experience has been this: I went to see a patent/trademark attorney and showed him my idea - he did a patent search - he recommended that I file a provisional patent to reserve the date which then gave me 1 year from the filing date to research the area to which the product relates and to include these changes when I filed the utility patent application.  That is exactly what I did and am very glad I followed his advice.  I had 1 year to research the market and found alot more uses for my invention and then added them to my patent application.  Good Luck !