provisional patent application

Under United States patent law, a provisional application for patent is a type of national application for patent filed in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), but which does not mature into an issued patent unless further steps are taken by the applicant. It is a patent application with a specification, i.e. a description, and optional drawing(s) of an invention, but does not require a formal patent claims, inventors' oaths or declarations, or any information disclosure statement (IDS). Furthermore, because no examination of the patentability of the application in view of the prior art is performed, the USPTO fee for filing a provisional patent application is significantly lower than the fee required to file a standard non-provisional patent application. A provisional patent application can establish an early effective filing date in one or more continuing patent applications later claiming the priority date of an invention disclosed in earlier provisional applications by one or more of the same inventors.
See more at Wikipedia.org...

a provisional application for patent is a U. S. national application for patent filed in the USPTO under 35  U.S.C. § 111(b). It allows filing without a formal patent claim, oath or declaration, or any information disclosure (prior art) statement. It provides the means to establish an early effective filing date in a  nonprovisional patent application filed under 35  U.S.C § 111(a) and automatically becomes abandoned after one year. It also allows the term "Patent Pending" to be applied.

-- see Provisional Patent Application for more

Context: Patent