It is crucial to protect your invention if you want to compete in today’s marketplace. That means getting a filing date with the US Patent Office right away so that your competitors don’t get rights to your invention before you. Fortunately, there is a fairly quick and relatively inexpensive way to do this. Let’s look at… Continue reading How Provisional Patent Application Can Protect Your Invention
Category: Provisional Patent Application
A provisional patent application grants the inventor a filing date with the US Patent Office and the right to use “Patent Pending” or “Pat Pend” on the invention for a period of exactly one (1) year.
Filing a provisional patent application is a good way to get a patent application filed. These are relatively low-cost, as compared with a full utility patent application. The one year period prior to filing the full utility patent application does not count against the 20 year term. And this gives the inventor a year to market the invention and decide whether it is worth proceeding with the patent process.
A regular or full utility patent application must be filed before the one year lapses, or all rights to claim the filing date of the provisional patent application are lost.
A provisional patent application cannot be filed for a design patent.