Is there a cheap and fast way to get a patent?

[Ms. Toad]

29. You've got some bad information there.

There is a filing fee for filing a provisional application. ($45) So it isn't free.

The provisional patent cover form might take 15 minutes to an hour, but if writing and filing the provisional application (which is what allows you to say patent pending) takes you 15 minutes to an hour you are a genius - or you've completely wasted your time in terms of protecting your invention. I doubt I've written one (other than a design application) in fewer than 10 hours - and I do it for a living.

Your provisional application needs to provide a complete description (in words and/or drawings) of every detail which is crucial to practicing your invention. If it doesn't, once you go to file the conversion (the full application) the new details you have to add will only be protected from the second filing date - not the first - meaning you may not be able to patent it at all (if someone has a filing date between your provisional date and your conversion date for the new features) or may only be entitled to a very limited patent (meaning you get a very lousy monopoly that it would be hard to enforce).

Yes - it can be done without a lawyer. It can even be done well without a lawyer. There isn't any particular magic to it. But doing it well when you have not written a patent application before is not easy or quick, and if you want a decent patent you will need to spend some time reading lots of recently drafted patents in the field of your invention to get a feel for how the parts fit together. You should also read recent Supreme Court and Federal Circuit Court decisions about claim interpretation/construction. Claims are the most important part of your application. If you know who your competitors are, it would be a good idea to review their patents - and any cases in which they either sued (or were sued) for infringement.