Step by Step Instructions - File a Provisional Patent Application Online

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Filing Your Provisional Patent Online - Step By Step Instructions

Step 1.  Get all of your materials ready and in a folder that you know the location of so when you are asked to upload  the files you know where to browse to on your hard drive.

Step 2.  Go to the USPTO website Home Page:  http://www.uspto.gov

Step 3.  On the left side of the pager under "PATENTS" click on Item Number 4 - "File Online"

Step 4.  The page you land on will have 5 links in about the middle of the page. Assuming you are not a registered user of the EFS web, you will want to click on the link labeled: "Launch EFS-Web Unregistered eFiler"

Step 5.  On this page you will need to sign in using your name and email address, and click on the "New Application" check button.  That opens a window where where you choose between Utility, Design or International Application. Another box opens and you check the button for "Provisional". Click "continue" at the bottom.

Step 6. You are now presented with a form with "Application Data" at the top of the page.  Fill out the boxes and click on "continue".

Step 7.  You should now be at a page where you can confirm your application data and browse to your PDF files. Then you upload the files and click on "Continue".

Step 8.  Continue through a couple of more pages where you calculate the fees, and unless your a huge corporation you are a small entity and so your fee should be $110. Then confirm and submit your application. The final step is paying the fees. That's it.  You should write down your application number as the patent office isn't going to email you anything. So when you get your 1st receipt that shows an application number, write it down.

Once you have the application number, congratulations! Your invention is now patent pending!

Here is my Provisional Application:

My first provisional patent application:

Provisional Patent Application of

William J. Lund

For

TITLE: SELECTIVE ASPARAGUS HARVESTER

The following machine is for selectively harvesting green asparagus spears. The machine cuts only the spears that are tall enough for harvesting and picks them up, sending them to the back of the machine for sorting and packing. 

The machine can be self-propelled or tractor pulled, and can have an area for humans to sort and pack the spears, or it can just fill a container.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a 4 row version of a selective asparagus harvester.

For the purpose of this document I will not include details of the carrier part (FIG. 10) that would carry the headers, conveyors, and humans, but will concern myself with the details of the headers, the parts that actually do the sensing, cutting, and picking up.

Fig. 1 shows a side view of the basic elements of the harvester without the supporting structure or frame that the elements are mounted on. The means of support for the various elements is not important. The positioning of the elements relative to each other and the spear and bed are important.

From left to right we have (1) the optical sensor, (2) the bed height sensor assembly, (3) the Pickup roller assembly, (4) the lower transport roller assembly, (5) the upper transport roller assembly,(6) the spear collection conveyor, (7) the cutting cylinder assembly, (8) a spear of asparagus, (9) the blade assembly position when the cylinder is fully extended during a cut,  (10) the blade assembly in the retracted position, (7) the blade fully extended, and finally (8) spears of asparagus.


Continued on the next page        Drawings