A provisional patent application will give you one year to test the commercial viability of your inventive concept.
A provisional patent application can be useful where several milestone advances are expected for an inventive concept within a given year. A properly filed provisional will permit cost-effective protection for each of those advances.
To be valid, a provisional patent application must include a full and detailed written description of the inventive concept permitting an engineer to make and use the invention without having to supply any missing information.