What does it mean to Register Your Invention?
A statutory invention registration is not a patent. It has the defensive nature of a patent but does not have the enforceable attributes of a patent. In other words, a person occasionally invents something solely for personal use (not for production or sale) and does not want to go through the effort and expense of obtaining a patent on the invention. Subsequently, an inventor wants to prevent someone else from later obtaining a patent on a like invention. In this situation, the inventor can register a statutory invention and forward to be published. Once it is published, it cannot be claimed by any other person.

US Patent Office Definition
According to US Patent law, a provisional application is a type of federal application for patent filed in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This type of patent application does not mature into an actual issued patent unless further steps are taken by the applicant.
Provisional Patent Applications contain specifications (description/optional drawings) of the invention, but do not require a formal patent claims, inventors' oaths or declarations, or any information disclosure statement (IDS). Subsequently, 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 relatively low than the fee required to file a standard non-provisional patent application.
Provisional Patent Applications can establish an early filing date in a continuing patent application later claiming the priority date of an invention disclosed in earlier provisional applications by an inventor.

About Patents
The purpose of a patent is to provide protection for technological advances (inventions). It provides an award for the disclosure of the creation of something new as well as for the further development, or refinement, of existing technologies. The aim of a patent system is to encourage economic and technological development by rewarding intellectual creativity.

Costs
Costs for patents vary depending on the field of technology your design falls into and the complexity of the design. Average costs to file and obtain a patent start at around $10,000 and can rise dramatically in some cases.

Advantage
The advantage of obtaining a Patent is the protection it offers. For the period of the patent the patent holder can exclude others from producing, using, and selling the invention claimed in the patent.

How long is the term of a patent?
The term of a patent is typically 20 years from the date on which the application is filed. Although it is no necessarily the same for every country it is now provided by international treaty that the term of a patent has to be at least 20 years from the filing date.

Disadvantage of a patents
The obvious disadvantage of attempting to acquire a Patent is the cost. Starting at around $10,000, you are immediately at a financial disadvantage before you've spent any money on product development and marketing. Secondly, patent applications are quite often rejected and if not take a minimum of 2 years to be fully processed. In the meanwhile your patent attorney will most likely be incurring fees while your product concept sits on the sideline.

What is a Patentable Invention?
In general, to be patentable, an invention must fulfill three criteria: novelty, inventive step (or non-obviousness) and industrial applicability. This means that the invention must be new compared to the state of the art on the filing date of the application, that it should not be obvious to a person skilled in the art, in other words, it must represent a sufficient advance in relation to the sate of art, and that it should be applicable in the context of some commercial production. The question whether a particular invention is patentable or not is a matter of national law. Patents may only issue to man-made inventions. In most patent systems, the mere discovery of materials or substances already existing in nature is not considered to be an invention. A plant discovered existing in nature, for example, would not be regarded as an invention. Many patent systems also require that an invention have a technical nature, i.e. that it relates to the physical world. In this respect, pure mathematical or physical formula, or pure software algorithms would not be regarded as inventions.

About: Selling a Product Idea
A sale is the activity involved in selling products or services in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity.
A sale is completed by the seller, the owner of the goods. It starts with consent (or agreement) to an acquisition or appropriation or request followed by the passing of intellectual property or ownership in the item and the application and due settlement of a fixed price, the obligation for which arises due to the seller required to pass ownership, being a price the seller is happy to part with ownership of or any claim to the item. The purchaser, though a party to the sale, does not execute the sale, only the seller does that. The sale completes prior to the payment and gives rise to the obligation of payment. If the seller completes the first two above stages (selling product) of the sale prior to settlement of the price the sale is still valid and gives rise to an obligation to pay.

About: Advertising Your Invention
Advertising is a type of communication that commonly attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase more of a particular brands product or service. Many advertisements are designed to generate increased consumption of those products and services by creating and reinforcing of  brand image and brand loyalty. Advertising sometimes has a persuasive message combined with factual information. Major mediums used to deliver these messages include television, radio, cinema, magazines, newspapers, video games, the Internet and billboards. Advertising is often placed by advertising agencies on behalf of a companies or other organizations.
Advertising is seen on the seats of shopping carts, on the walls of an airport walkway, on the sides of buses, in telephone messages and in-store public address systems. Advertising is often placed where audiences can easily and frequently access visual, audio and printed information. Some organizations spend large sums of money on advertising that sells what is not, strictly speaking, a product or service include political parties, interest groups, religious organizations, and military recruiters. Non-profit organizations are not typical advertising clients, and may rely on free modes of persuasion, such as public service announcements.

So what should your very first action be:

-Getting a patent, perhaps?
-Going on a fact-finding mission to manufacturers in China?
-Calling QVC?

While all these steps may be appropriate down the line, it's critically important that you first take action by shifting your thought process. I know what you're thinking. Thinking doesn't seem very actionable, does it? Maybe not, but over the years, countless inventors make devastating mistakes based on false beliefs and inaccurate assumptions.
For this reason debunking some common myths associated with inventing is important. Myths and misperceptions can be debilitating to your progress and costly to your pocket book. Although it may not seem very "actionable," it's vital to begin the inventing process with a realistic understanding of some of the basics for bringing an idea to market.

Truth: It's understandable why this is such a commonly held belief. The topic of getting a patent is so pervasive among the inventing literature, conferences, websites and tv commercials, it's no wonder that many people feel they can't move forward without getting a patent first. Many inventors spend 80 -100% of their initial effort and money on obtaining a patent because that is the myth that's been sold and supported by those who stand to profit from it. Certainly a patent can be a valuable tool later in the process, but you should first determine the viability of your invention as a business before moving forward. Remember that filing a patent has little impact on a successful product launch & cost $10,000 or more-so unless getting a patent for its own sake is your end goal, it doesn't usually make good business sense to apply for a patent first thing off the bat. Most importantly- if you file a patent first, then encounter overwhelming obstacles later on, you may have invested in a patent for nothing.