Provisional Patent Application

A Provisional Patent Application (PPA) is a legal document filed with a patent office that allows an inventor to claim an invention as "patent pending" for 12 months. This application gives inventors time to test or develop their idea further without fully committing to a complete patent application. It doesn’t require a formal patent claim or detailed legal language, making it easier to file. If the inventor decides to pursue a full patent, they must submit a non-provisional patent application within a year, using the PPA's filing date as the priority date for their invention.