Provisional Patent Applications
The purpose of filing a provisional application is often misunderstood and it is an advisable to consult a patent professional before spending time and money to file a provisional patent application. An initial consultation is often free and it may avoid the filing of a worthless provisional application.
A provisional application for patent (provisional application) is not examined and cannot result in a patent or patent protection unless followed up with a corresponding non-provisional patent application within 12 months of filing the provisional application.
Because they are not examined, provisional applications are not required to include all of the parts required in a non-provisional application. For example, provisional applications are not required to include formal patent claims or an oath or declaration. Filing an incomplete or poorly prepared provisional application, however, can have adverse consequences.
The language used in grant proposal, contract proposal, or paper for publication is different from the language used for a patent application. Cutting language from a proposal or paper and pasting it into a provisional application without modification can cause problems because specific disclosures in the apparent application can be interpreted in ways that work against the application. Once a patent application is filed, it cannot be changed except to conform to legal requirements. For these and other reasons, it is recommended that a provisional patent application be as complete as possible and written as well as if it were a non-provisional application.
A provisional patent application is often filed prior to public disclosure of an invention and as a part of a patent filing strategy involving the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) process to seek patent protection outside the U.S. It is important to remember that an applicant who publishes, uses, sells, or otherwise makes the invention available to the public during the 12 month provisional application pendency period may lose more the benefit of the provisional application filing date if a corresponding nonprovisional application is not filed during the 12 month provisional application pendency period. An applicant may even lose the right to ever patent the invention. Consultation with a patent professional is recommended before filing a provisional patent application.
Beware of invention promotion firms that sometimes misuse the provisional application process and leave the inventor with no patent. For more information, see information from the USPTO via http://www.uspto.gov/patents-getting-started/patent-basics/types-patent-applications/provisional-application-patent.