KnowThis Tutorial: Marketing Method Patents

Tutorial Contents

Page 15 of 15

The Provisional Patent Application
As discussed there is a second option for filing a patent application. This option, called a provisional patent application, requires far less information than the non-provisional patent application (basically just a general description and drawings) but it CANNOT result in a patent. It must be replaced (or converted) to a non-provisional patent application within 12 months of the filling date. So what is the benefit? Why waste the time filling a provisional patent application?

The chief benefit of a provisional patent application is that it sets an effective date for when the non-provisional application is filed. As long as the non-provisional application is filed within 12 months of the provisional application the filling date will be the date of the provisional patent application filling. This could be quite valuable if an inventor is looking to beat a competitor by establishing an earlier filling date for a patent on a business process but doesn’t have the time to complete the entire non-provisional process. It essentially buys the inventor time to prepare the more detailed non-provisional patent application including time to research prior art to see if anyone else has thought of the idea.

Provisional patent applications have two other important benefits. First, by filling a provisional application the inventor can claim “patent pending” status which may be an effective marketing tool. Second, provisional patent applications are less expensive than non-provisional applications. For some this may be a very reasonable expenditure for buying the time to see if it is worth filling the full patent application.

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