Entrepreneurs and inventors with ideas are usually interested in protecting their invention before seeking companies and investors to help them develop, manufacture and market the invention. Patents for sale can be sold for varying amounts and through different business methods. One feature that the investor or company buying the invention should check is the type of protection that the inventor filed for at the patent office. Inventions with registered patents usually generate more interest amongst potential investors than those with provisional patents. Since an invention with a registered patent has already undergone examination by the patent office, the inventor has already been granted a monopoly of rights to the invention and companies are willing to pay more for registered patents than for patent applications still at the provisional patent phase.

Inventors can often be heard to claim that they have a registered patent, when they only have a provisional application that has not in fact been granted a registered patent. Therefore, using the term registered patent is mistaken. The term “provizori” is used in Hebrew, which comes from the English word “provisional” and, as it sounds, means temporary, granting the inventor priority right for a period of 12 months. At the end of this priority period, the inventor must file a continuation application for a patent; this continuation application that is filed as a patent application will be examined by a patent examiner in the patent office only at that point. Only if the patent examiner accepts the patent application documents will the patent rights be registered, and the patent office will issue a patent certificate for that invention if it meets the conditions of patent law.

Therefore, inventors who present their patents for sale may get different reactions from investors and companies depending on the type of application that has been filed at the patent office. The main disadvantage to a provisional patent is that it has not been examined, so investors and interested companies do not know for certain if the invention will receive a registered patent or not in the end of the examination process. Therefore they are usually willing to pay more for an invention that is protected by a registered patent.

In this matter, it is important to consult with professionals in the field so the inventor can be guided and helped towards the processes that are the most suitable for his objectives and strategy. There is a great difference in cost between applying for a patent and the cost of applying for a “provisional patent”, so the efficiency and rewards for the inventor should be examined: if the inventor has the financial means to apply for a patent, this path is usually the more worthwhile, since investors and companies perceive this as preferable to a temporary provisional patent.

However, there may be other considerations that make it more advisable to apply for a temporary patent at the patent office. The first and foremost reason for this is financial considerations. Another reason may be due to technical information held by the inventor. In this matter, some companies will help. Often, the inventor may not have enough technical information about the invention in order to apply for a patent, which can be an advantage for companies that employ a technical staff who can help the inventor integrate his idea with their technical knowledge to develop a prototype that can mature into a product at a later stage. The technical staff can provide enough technical information at an earlier stage to a patent attorney, and can thus apply for a patent and maximize the invention’s potential.