Provisional Application for a Patent
Since June 8, 1995, the USPTO has offered inventors the option of filing a provisional application for
a patent which was designed to provide a lower cost first patent filing in the United States and to give U.S. applicants parity with foreign applicants. Claims and oath or declaration are NOT required for a provisional application.
Provisional application provides the means to establish an early effective filing date in a patent application and permits the term “Patent Pending” to be applied in connection with the invention. Provisional applications may not be filed for design inventions.
The filing date of a provisional application is the date on which a written description of the invention, drawings if necessary, and the name of the inventor(s) are received in the USPTO. To be complete, a provisional application must also include the filing fee, and a cover sheet specifying that the application is a provisional application for patent. The applicant would then have up to 12 months to file a non-provisional application for patent as described
above. The claimed subject matter in the later filed non-provisional application is entitled to the benefit of the filing date of the provisional application if it has support in the provisional application. If a provisional application is not filed in English, then any non-provisional application claiming priority to the provisional application must have a translation of the provisional application filed therein. See title 37, Code of Federal Regulations, Section 1.78(a)(5).
Provisional applications are NOT examined on their merits. A provisional application will become abandoned by the operation of law 12 months from its filing date. The 12-month pendency for a provisional application is not counted toward the 20-year term of a patent granted on a subsequently filed non-provisional application which relies on the filing date of the provisional application.
A surcharge is required for filing the basic filing fee or the cover sheet on a date later than the filing of the provisional application.
A brochure on Provisional Application for Patent is available by calling the USPTO General Information Services at 1-800-786-9199 or 703-308-4357 or by accessing USPTO’s Web site at http://www.uspto.gov/.
My Utility Patents:
Game board unit - Patent No.
3,967,824
Asparagus Harvester Patent No. 4512145
Tractor Feed Paper
Separator - Patent Number 4,940,347
Accelerated hot water delivery system-
Patent Number 4,945,942
Demand Recovery Hot Water System
Patent Number 5042524
Paper Separator - Continuation In Part -
Patent No. 5,120,144
Quick
Shot Dispensing system Patent No. 5273190
Hot water demand system
suitable for retrofit - Patent Number 5,277,219
Method for sealing cable
conduits - Patent No. 5,304,396
Hot water demand appliance and system
Patent No 5385168
Hydrothermal stabilizer and
expansion tank system - Patent Number 5,584,316
Hydrothermal stabilizer -
Patent Number 5,586,572
Design Patents:
Paper trimmer - Design Pat. # D326277
Card Clip Toy - Design Patent No. D286555 |