Many inventors disclose their ideas to other people prior to filing a patent application and locking in 'patent pending' and thus forever lose legal rights to their idea (their invention). Inventors often attempt to save money by filing their own provisional patent applications on their ideas without professional help. While preparing and filing a provisional patent application does not require all of the formalities of a non-provisional patent application, inventors often prepare and file incomplete or sometimes even invalid provisional patent applications. This often results in loss of legal rights to their idea. Preparing and filing a provisional patent application is not difficult and well within the ordinary skills of most inventors with the proper guidance.