what is the benefit of a provisional patent
There are many advantages to filing a provisional patent application including: 1  Low cost (currently $65 for most small time inventors or $130 for most small companies) 2  Reduced paperwork and filing requirements compared to other types of patent applications. 3  Easy online filing process.
The non-provisional patent application is the application which will eventually be issued as a patent and get a patent number. The advantage of the provisional patent is that it gives you the early filing date of when you filed the provisional instead of the later date of when you filed your non-provisional.