Dear Rich: I've tried filing a provisional patent application electronically at the patent office but the USPTO refuses to validate my application cover sheet (a PDF form). It's driving me nuts because I can't figure out the problem. I'm so glad you asked. Chances are you're using the wrong version of Adobe Acrobat. Although many people are using Acrobat 8.0 (and higher), the USPTO EFS system currently only accepts forms prepared with Acrobat 7.0.8 which you can obtain using the links on this
USPTO page. (You can get all the EFS requirements
here.) And of course, if you're interested in the other kind of
acrobat...
