What’s the Cheapest Way to Get Patent Pending Status on a Product Idea?

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What is the most economical way to get my product to the patent pending stage?

So, it's—this question—I mean, I'll address this one briefly, but next Friday—and do you know what is next Friday, May 7th or 8th?

May 8th.

May 8th, okay. So, next Friday at noon, we're having another Ask the Patent Professor segment, and the sole focus is understanding the difference between provisional patents and non provisional patents. So, to answer this question, the most economical way is to start the patent with a provisional patent first, and that gives you 12 months of protection. And then at the end of those 12 months, you convert to a non-provisional patent. So this way, you get your filing date, you start sales, you start marketing and you can do all the things that you typically want to do once you're protected, and you can even make minor modifications to the design during the year.