Do-It-Yourself at Your Own Risk - Provisional Patent Applications

Unless you have no access to media (television, print, radio, Internet), you have probably heard or seen at least one advertisement about services, such as Invent Help or LegalZoom, that allow the public to generate their own legal documents at a low cost. In some instances, these services may promote their use to assist inventors in obtaining patent protection. While this may provide an inventor with a supposedly lower-cost way to access the patent system, using these services when patenting can be full of pitfalls for the unwary.

Is there a such thing as "provisional patent"? Though convenient, be wary of cost-cutting online legal services that over-promise and under-deliver. Read more about Patent Protection.

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In addition to Thriving Attorney, Darin M. Klemchuk is founder of Klemchuk LLP, a litigation, intellectual property, and transactional law firm located in Dallas, Texas.  He also co-founded Project K, a charity devoted to changing the world one random act of kindness at a time.  Click to read more about Darin Klemchuk's practice as an intellectual property lawyer.