Provisional Patent Applications for Business Pivots
Successful entrepreneurship is rarely a linear process of having a great idea, developing that idea into a product, and then having great success in the market. Instead, entrepreneurs often present a concept to potential clients and find that it is not entirely correct. They then run a pivot and modify the product or service to make it more interesting to customers. A startup will often go through multiple pivots before finally nailing what the market wants. The pivot process is standard for truly innovative ideas. The inventor has a good idea of how to satisfy an unmet need, but a lot of experimentation and feedback is always needed before getting the details right.
These regular pivots make it difficult to protect valuable innovations. Too often, an inventor quickly files a patent application to protect a great idea so that he can freely disclose the invention and offer it for sale without losing any patent rights.
Offering an innovation to customers is the best way to discover the changes necessary to improve the product. However, an offer to sell also ends a person’s right to apply for patent protection in most countries and sets the clock ticking for when patent protection cannot be obtained in the United States. Therefore, an early commercialization test in the United States may exclude later valuable patents in China and Europe.
Spreading great ideas to potential suppliers and customers also often leads to competitors impressed with the potential of the invention. The application for patent protection ensures the priority of the inventor and prevents the loss of the right to file an application. As a result, it is often imperative to seek protection before disclosing or selling an invention.
However, patent applications filed early in the development cycle often become outdated when pivoting. The features and inventive elements that were key to a first version of a product or service are suddenly much less valuable.
To protect future patent rights to great ideas that are likely to mature through repeated pivots, flash provisional patent applications must be filed. Provisional patent applications preserve the right to patent protection for one year, both in the United States and internationally. They are not examined and the patent office keeps them secret. However, when a utility patent application is subsequently filed claiming priority over the provisional, then the utility patent application is treated as having the filing date of the provisional.
Provisional applications allow an inventor to protect an idea for a fraction of the cost of a utility patent. Then you are free to sell the idea and get the market information for a product pivot. Then, when the idea pivots, a new provisional is filed so that the updated concept can also be sold without losing patent rights. The inventor only files a utility patent application when she finally nails the concept. By filing flash provisional patent applications, the inventor gains market intelligence from advance sales while retaining patent rights around the world.