Successful entrepreneurship is rarely a linear process of coming up with a great idea, developing that idea into a product, and then having great success in the marketplace. Instead, entrepreneurs often present a concept to potential customers only to discover that it isn’t quite right. So they execute a pivot and tweak the product or service to make it more interesting to customers. A start-up company will often go through multiple pivots before finally achieving what the market wants. The pivot process is standard for truly innovative ideas. The inventor has a good idea of how to fill an unmet need, but it always requires a lot of experimentation and feedback 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 needed to improve the product. However, an offer to sell also ends the right to seek patent protection in most countries and starts the clock for when patent protection cannot be obtained in the United States. Thus, an early commercial trial in the United States may rule out valuable later patents in China and Europe.
Revealing great ideas to potential suppliers and customers also often leads to competitors who are impressed with the potential of the invention. The application for patent protection ensures priority for the inventor and avoids the loss of the right to file it. As a result, it is often imperative to apply for protection before disclosing or selling an invention.
However, patent applications filed early in the development cycle often become obsolete when a pivot is made. Features and inventive elements that were key to an early version of a product or service are suddenly much less valuable.
To protect future patent rights for 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 are kept secret by the patent office. However, when a utility patent application is subsequently filed claiming priority over the provisional one, the utility patent application is treated as having the provisional filing date.
Provisional applications allow an inventor to protect an idea for a fraction of the cost of a utility patent. Then he is free to sell the idea and get the market information for a product pivot. Then, when the idea spins, a new tentative one is filed so that the updated concept can also be sold without losing patent rights. The inventor only files a utility patent application when he finally comes up with the concept. By filing flash provisional patent applications, the inventor gains market intelligence on early sales while he preserves patent rights worldwide.