Provisional Patent Application Checklist: Everything to Prepare Before Filing

A provisional patent application checklist keeps you from filing a document that is too thin to protect your invention. The USPTO does not examine a provisional, but what you file is the only disclosure your later non-provisional application can rely on for the early date.

1. A complete written description

Explain the problem, every component, how the parts connect and how the invention works. Describe alternatives: other materials, sizes, shapes and ways of achieving the same result. The more variations you include, the broader the later claims can be.

2. Drawings that match the text

Drawings are required when they are necessary to understand the invention. Use clean black-and-white figures, number each important part and use the same reference numbers in the written description.

3. Inventor and correspondence data

Prepare each inventor's legal name, residence and mailing address, plus the correspondence address the USPTO will use.

4. Cover sheet and entity status

A cover sheet (or the equivalent web data in Patent Center) identifies the filing as provisional. Decide whether you qualify as a large, small or micro entity, because it changes the fee.

5. USPTO.gov account and fee payment

Create a USPTO.gov account and complete identity verification so you can file in Patent Center and pay the fee online.

Faster preparation

GetQuickPatent generates the written description, suggested claims, abstract and optional drawings from your plain-language explanation, then exports a PDF you review before filing. It is not legal advice; consider review by a registered patent attorney.