Many of my clients contact me initially looking to obtain patent protection for their invention. What they don’t often realize is that there are two options for them at the beginning of the patent process.
Non-Provisional Patents
The non-provisional patent application is what most people think of when they think about the patent process. This application has all of the formal, legal requirements and it is where you are asking for the grant of patent rights from the government.
Provisional Patents
By comparison, the provisional patent application is essentially a placeholder. It does not have all of the formal, legal requirements that the non-provisional has and it will never be examined by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). However, what it does do is buy you one year of time to file the non-provisional patent application. If you do not file a non-provisional, the provisional will expire and you will potentially lose your patent rights.
Based on this, it actually sounds like the provisional is not a great option. But, for most of my clients, the provisional patent application is a very powerful option.
Additional benefits of provisional patents include:
- The provisional patent application provides you with a filing date. This means that anyone who tries to patent your invention after your filing date is prevented from applying.
- It allows you to market your invention as patent-pending, which puts others on notice that you are protecting your patent rights.
- It allows you to test the market to make sure that there is interest in your invention before you spend too much time and energy on protecting it and try to manufacture and market the invention.
- It allows you to get a filing date without as much effort in the event that you need to present the invention at a trade show.
- The provisional filing date serves as an international filing date as well, in case you need to file the application in foreign jurisdictions.
Nonetheless, if you do know that your invention will be successful and you would like to just jump right into the non provisional patent application, that is always an option.
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