The Importance of a Provisional Patent Application

Narendra Kumar

07 Nov, 2019

A provisional patent is a type of legal document which is filed under the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). A provisional patent establishes an early filing but unless an applicant files a regular non-provisional patent application within one year, it does not mature into an issued patent.

What is a Provisional Patent Application (PPA)?

A Provisional Patent application includes a full description of an invention but it does not require any declaration or an information disclosure statement. The fee for filing an application is very low as compared to patent non- provisional application.

What are the benefits of filling the Provision Patent Application?

As filing the provisional patent is a great initiative to start the patent procedure as the filing fees for a provisional patent is very less when compared to non-provisional patent. It is an excellent tool for all those inventors who are continuing their work on their invention, as it describes what you have at the moment and when the work is done on the invention you can file the application for a non-provisional patent. After the filing of an application for a provisional patent, you can market your invention without the fear of losing the patent right.

As it mostly happens that the idea you conceive you don’t ultimately want to patent the same you may need to continue working on it, so it is the best idea to file a provisional patent and continue working on the same after the invention is complete in all respect you can file a non-provisional patent. Another benefit of filing the provisional is that there are no filing fees as well as attorney’s fees until and unless the non-provision patent application is filed.

Another benefit is that the time for filing the provisional patent is very less as compared to the time consumed in filling non- provisional patent.

Alteration and Variations in filing Provision Patent Application:

Anything that is not included in your patent Application Development Agreement^[1] will not be considered to be part of your invention. So when you prepare and file any application you need to cover not only the invention but also the alterations that may be included in the near future.

Procedure for filling Provision Patent Application:

1. Prepare Form 1 and Form 2 as given on the Patent Website.
2. Fill relevant details as well as the name of the applicant and the inventor.
3. Fill Details of the invention as for how it is different from the invention of the other.
4. Pay the relevant fees.