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A provisional patent application is not a patent, and in addition, never becomes a patent, with the single rare exception noted below. It automatically expires soon after twelve months following the day of filing and can't be revived.
It does present a priority date for concurrent later-filed non-provisional applications for the content material that is in the provisional. This implies that references that could defeat the later-filed application as to the matter in the provisional (but which could not defeat the provisional filing date) will now not be utilized to defeat the later-filed application. Further, it does not subtract from the twenty year term of the later-filed application unless it is actually converted as discussed beneath.
While patent attorneys regularly speak of "converting" a provisional into a non-provisional, this is not usually an accurate description of the case (with a single exception), considering that the provisional has no life beyond its twelve-month term and "converting" is typically accomplished by filing a non-provisional application that claims benefit of the filing date of the provisional. Therefore, the provisional is primarily a implies for delaying the filing of a non-provisional patent application, even though still acquiring benefit of the earlier filing date of the provisional. (The single exception as to "converting" is that a provisional patent application can be actually converted with an extra processing fee if it has a least 1 claim, or is amended to include at least 1 claim, but this method is rarely done, due to the fact now the term of the resulting non-provisional will be twenty years from the date of the provisional filing, thereby losing a year.)
A provisional patent application needs a full written specification and all the drawing figures, but does not need claims. It is by no means examined (unless truly converted) other than to ensure that the correct papers are present.
Lastly, a provisional patent application never ever sees the light of day and remains confidential, unless a non-provisional patent application (or a Patent Cooperation Treaty application -- to preserve foreign filing rights -- or a style application) takes priority to it.
For a lot more information and facts on provisional patent applications, see .
Non-provisional
A non-provisional patent application, oftentimes referred to as a "common" patent application or just a "patent application", is a "real" application for a patent. It will be examined, and ultimately, through the examination process can mature into a patent. It is "term" or life ends twenty years from the earliest priority date, which may be the date it is filed or the date that an application from which it takes priority benefit is filed. (See above for the impact of a provisional priority date.)
A total non-provisional patent application contains at least a specification, all the drawing figures and at least 1 claim. Claims are the invention. The specification and drawings need to disclose what is in the claims, but they do not comprise the invention, only the claims do. Twenty claims are paid for with the filing fee, of which three may perhaps be independent claims. (Independent claims stand alone. The remaining are dependent claims which refer to one more claim and thus can not stand alone.)
There are varied kinds of non-provisional patent applications, including the "parent" application and such "children" as divisional patent applications (occasionally the United States Patent & Trademark Workplace (USPTO) examiner calls for restriction in between much more than 1 invention in the patent application soon after proceeding with one selected invention, the other or others can be filed as divisionals), continuation patent applications (commonly only a new set of claims to the original invention) and continuation-in-component patent applications (the original patent application plus some new matter added -- this is the only way to add new matter to a patent application).
For far more facts on non-provisional patent applications, see .
Which Costs Much less
Various individuals feel that a provisional patent application is much less expensive way to get a patent than a non-provisional patent application. On the other hand, this is not the case.
Once more, simply because the provisional expires and a non-provisional need to be filed to take priority to the provisional, this two-step method is significantly more highly-priced. It is true that a provisional patent application is the least high priced way to get "Patent Pending" status, but that will expire following a year unless the non-provisional is filed within that time.
Further, in order to be completely enabling and not just a waste of time and revenue, the provisional have to include every little thing that a non-provisional would include except the claims. That constitutes about ninety percent of the price of a patent. Later, the non-provisional that is filed taking priority to the provisional will expense about twenty to thirty percent far more. Therefore, the provisional route is the more pricey route to acquiring a patent.
Notwithstanding, as noted below, there are in some cases superb reasons to file a provisional patent application and incur the further expenses.
How to Select
When to use a provisional
There are at least two superb reasons to file a provisional patent application:
1. When an invention is fully definable, but will most likely demand further improvements that can be achieved within a year, that is a decent time to file a provisional patent application on the existing invention. The key is that the improvements ought to be completed within a year so that the non-provisional can be filed with the improvements throughout the pendency of the provisional so that priority as to the matter of the original invention defined in the provisional can be taken before the provisional expires.
two. On occasion, somebody has an invention that they merely want to sell or license and are particular that they will have located a person to acquire or license inside the 1-year pendency of the provisional patent application. Alternately, if they do not acquire somebody, they plan to let the provisional patent application expire with out filing a non-provisional patent application and incur no further expenditures.
When to use a non-provisional
Pretty a lot any other reason than those two above will be a good cause for filing a non-provisional. Namely, if you want to get a patent and cause 1 above doesn't apply, you really should immediately file a non-provisional patent application and get the method going.
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