Provisional Patent Applications

Although some patent firms may be willing to file very brief and informal provisional patent applications, the Courts are much less likely to uphold filing-date rights from such incomplete applications. Therefore, it is important that all provisional patent applications be crafted with the same thought, quality, and content as for utility patent applications.

Following are some of the advantages and disadvantages of filing a (well-crafted) provisional application.

ADVANTAGES:

The U.S. government fees for filing a provisional patent application are less than fees for filing a utility application. Reduced government filing fees.
Updates, revisions and improvements to provisional patent applications can be made relatively inexpensively.
Patent prosecution fees can be delayed up to one additional year.
“Patent Pending” status can be extended up to one additional year.
The patent term endpoint can be extended up to one additional year.
Informal drawings and photographs may be used when it is necessary to file a provisional patent application very quickly.
Under provisions and practice of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), the filing date of the provisional application becomes, upon filing an international patent application, an international priority date establishing an international patent right (transferable and licensable), even for the year before an international application is filed (this is equivalent to a utility application).
If interest in the invention wanes before one year is up, the provisional patent application may be abandoned without further expense and trade secrets may be preserved.

DISADVANTAGES:

A provisional patent application may not claim the benefit of earlier filed patent applications.
The priority date of a provisional patent application may not be claimed as the priority date for later-filed design patent applications.
Overall expense for patent application filing will be slightly higher since the provisional patent application needs (at least, if no technical improvements) to be updated and re-filed as a utility patent application within one year of filing the provisional patent application.

Utility Patent Application