To file a provisional patent application, you submit four things to the United States Patent and Trademark Office: a written description of your invention, any drawings needed to understand it, a completed cover sheet (form PTO/SB/16), and a filing fee between $65 and $325 depending on your entity size.1United States Patent and Trademark Office. Provisional Application for Patent2United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Fee Schedule Most filers submit the package electronically through the USPTO’s Patent Center portal. The filing locks in a priority date and gives you 12 months of “patent pending” status to prepare a non-provisional application.
One boundary before the steps: provisional applications are available only for utility inventions. If you are protecting an ornamental design, this route does not apply.1United States Patent and Trademark Office. Provisional Application for Patent
What Goes Into the Application
The formal requirements are lighter than for a non-provisional filing, but each piece has to be there for the USPTO to assign a filing date.
- Written description. A detailed explanation of what the invention is, how to make it, and how to use it, meeting the disclosure requirements of 35 U.S.C. 112(a).3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 35 USC 112 – Specification
- Drawings. Any illustrations needed to understand the invention. The USPTO will accept a filing without drawings but strongly recommends including them, because you cannot add new drawings later.1United States Patent and Trademark Office. Provisional Application for Patent
- Cover sheet. USPTO form PTO/SB/16, which identifies the filing as provisional and lists the invention title, the names and residences of all inventors, and a correspondence address.4United States Patent and Trademark Office. Provisional Application for Patent Cover Sheet – Form PTO/SB/16
- Filing fee. Paid at the time of submission, in the amount corresponding to your entity status.
You do not need formal patent claims, an inventor’s oath or declaration, or an information disclosure statement. Those belong to the non-provisional stage.5United States Patent and Trademark Office. Basics of a Provisional Application
Write the Description as Though It Were the Real Thing
The looser formal requirements tempt many first-time filers into submitting a thin description just to grab a date. The consequences show up a year later when the non-provisional gets drafted.
Your description has to meet two legal standards. It must enable someone with ordinary skill in your field to build and use the invention without excessive experimentation.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 35 USC 112 – Specification And it must disclose the best mode you know for practicing the invention at the time you file, not a watered-down alternative.6United States Patent and Trademark Office. MPEP 2165 – The Best Mode Requirement
The practical stakes: when you later file a non-provisional and claim priority to the provisional, only the subject matter actually disclosed in the provisional gets the earlier filing date. Any feature you left out and later add is treated as filed on the non-provisional’s date, which exposes it to more prior art. You cannot amend a provisional to fix the gap. Once filed, its contents are locked.
Provisional applications have no page limit, so include every variant, material, and embodiment you have. Draft it as though it were the specification for a full patent application, minus the claims.
Filing Fees and Entity Status
The fee you pay depends on which of three tiers you fall into:
- Micro entity: $65
- Small entity: $130
- Large entity: $325
These amounts apply to the provisional itself; the non-provisional you file later carries a separate and substantially higher schedule.2United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Fee Schedule
Most independent inventors and small startups qualify as small entities. To reach micro entity status you need to meet all of the following: qualify as a small entity, have neither you nor any co-inventor named on more than four prior U.S. patent applications, and have gross income in the prior calendar year that did not exceed three times the national median household income. You also cannot have assigned rights to an entity whose income exceeds that same threshold.7United States Patent and Trademark Office. Certification of Micro Entity Status (Gross Income Basis) Claiming micro entity status incorrectly can invalidate the filing, so check each requirement before selecting that option.
Submitting Through Patent Center
Patent Center is the USPTO’s current online filing portal. It replaced EFS-Web in late 2023, so older guides referencing that system are out of date.8United States Patent and Trademark Office. EFS-Web and Private PAIR to be Retired You will need a verified USPTO.gov account. Once logged in, you upload the description and drawings, enter the cover sheet information, select your entity status, and pay.
Mail filing remains available. You send the complete package with payment to the USPTO, though it is slower and lacks the instant confirmation of an electronic submission.9United States Patent and Trademark Office. File Online
After submission, the USPTO returns a filing receipt with your application number and filing date. Electronic filers get an acknowledgment receipt with a timestamp almost immediately.10United States Patent and Trademark Office. MPEP 503 – Application Number and Filing Receipt Keep it. This is your proof of “patent pending” status and of the priority date the rest of your patent strategy will depend on.
What Happens During the Next 12 Months
The provisional stays alive for exactly 12 months from its filing date. That period cannot be extended.1United States Patent and Trademark Office. Provisional Application for Patent The USPTO does not examine the application and will never issue a patent based on it alone. If you do nothing, it quietly expires, no notice is sent, and the priority date is gone.
Before that 12-month mark, you generally file a non-provisional patent application that specifically references the provisional and claims priority to it. That reference must appear in the non-provisional itself; omit it and you lose the earlier filing date even if the non-provisional is timely.11United States Patent and Trademark Office. MPEP 211 – Claiming the Benefit of an Earlier Filing Date Under 35 USC 120 and 119(e)
A second option is petitioning to convert the provisional itself into a non-provisional. It carries a drawback most inventors want to avoid: the 20-year patent term then runs from the provisional’s filing date, shortening the life of any patent issued. Filing a separate non-provisional and claiming priority is usually the better path.
One more timing point worth knowing before you file. If you have already publicly disclosed your invention, the America Invents Act gives you one year from that disclosure to file a patent application in the United States, and a provisional is an efficient way to meet that deadline.12United States Patent and Trademark Office. MPEP 2153 – Prior Art Exceptions Under 35 USC 102(b)(1) and (b)(2) Most foreign patent systems offer no equivalent grace period, so if international protection matters, file the provisional before any public disclosure.
If You Miss the 12-Month Deadline
A missed deadline is not always fatal. If the delay was genuinely unintentional, you can petition the USPTO to restore the priority claim and file your non-provisional within 14 months of the provisional filing date.1United States Patent and Trademark Office. Provisional Application for Patent The petition requires a statement that the entire delay was unintentional, plus a petition fee.
Petition fees are considerably higher than the original filing cost. Within two years of when the priority claim was due, they run from $452 for a micro entity to $2,260 for a large entity. Past two years, the fees rise to between $600 and $3,000, and the USPTO expects a detailed explanation of the circumstances.13eCFR. 37 CFR 1.17 – Patent Application and Reexamination Processing Fees
“Unintentional” is read narrowly. A decision to postpone filing because you were weighing costs or uncertain about the invention’s value counts as intentional, even if you later change your mind.14United States Patent and Trademark Office. Petition to Accept an Unintentionally Delayed Claim for the Benefit of a Prior-Filed Application Restoration is a safety net for oversights, not a way to buy extra time.