Filing a provisional patent application guards against rip-offs while buying time to file a regular patent application.
Inventors know that inventions are often new solutions to old problems.
Although most potential manufacturers can be trusted to play fair, few inventors wish to rely exclusively on trust when disclosing an invention. But for a variety of sensible reasons, most manufacturers are unwilling to sign binding non-disclosure agreements before even seeing an invention. To resolve this standoff, inventors have traditionally used two approaches to protecting their invention when disclosing it to potential manufacturers. If they have carefully documented the building and testing process, they can later disprove the manufacturer's claim to be the true inventor if a ripoff is attempted. Few manufacturers will risk ripping off an invention if they realize they may later be hit with a patent infringement lawsuit if the patent is ultimately issued.