I was happy to hear that ABC has renewed the show Shark Tank.

For those who haven’t seen the show, Shark Tank films inventors as they pitch their inventions and business ideas to four investors termed “Sharks” – people with financial capital and expertise, each looking to invest in the next big thing.

One of the questions that inevitably comes up with every new invention: “Do you have a patent on this?” More often than not, the response is “Yes, I have a Provisional Patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.”

Cringe.

There is no such thing as a “provisional patent.” What the inventor means is that they’ve filed a provisional patent application, and may one day convert it to a regular patent application, which may or may not issue as a US Patent.

A Provisional Patent Application (PPA) is an inexpensive way to file a priority claim in the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The application isn’t examined, nor does the office issue an opinion on patentability. The application serves only as a placeholder for a regular application that must be filed within one year or the PPA becomes “abandoned” at the USPTO. A PPA doesn’t even have to have any actual claims associated with it.

In short, a PPA gives the inventor no protection whatsoever, and gives the inventor absolutely no indication of whether the invention is even patentable..

With a PPA, you’re basically telling the USPTO “Hey, I invented something, here’s the gist of it, I’ll be back later to file a regular Patent Application,” to which the office responds “OK, you’ve got one year. We’ll be here waiting.”

A lot of “invention protection” companies hawk low-cost patent registration services that do nothing more than file a bare-bones PPA. For the low-cost of $499, these companies will file a provisional app for your invention, leaving you with a false sense of security that your idea is protectable. It offers no protection, and must be converted into a regular patent application within 1 year (which costs money) before it becomes abandoned. That’s assuming that it was written with enough specificity to serve as the basis for an actual patent application. If you paid just a couple hundred dollars for your provisional filing, it probably wasn’t.

Inventors rely on these misleading representations, thinking that they have a patentable idea. They spend more time, more money on their invention, thinking that they’ve come up with the next greatest thing. Some mortgage their house, cash in their 401k, spend the kids’ college money, all based on a misunderstanding. In reality, these people have nothing more than a placeholder, a date in time that’s probably not worth a single dollar.

There is no such thing as a low-cost patent. None. Nada. Zilch. A properly prepared patent application takes at least a dozen hours to prepare, for even the simplest of inventions. Prosecution of that patent application takes even more time – the entire process usually runs about 2.5 years. Plus you have the cost of official drawings, and other procedural matters.

I wish that Shark Tank would make these facts clear. Until they do, they’re doing all would-be inventors a great disservice.