People are always looking for a cheaper way to obtain patent protection.
Advertisements that offer to file “provisional patent” applications for little money are very appealing to them.
Inventors may believe that they can file a hastily prepared, thrown together provisional patent application, without the aid of a patent attorney.
That is a big mistake.
Generally speaking, a main purpose of a provisional patent application is to provide support for a later filed regular non-provisional patent application.
A provisional patent application, just like a regular non-provisional patent application, must have a written description complying with 35 U.S.C. 112 and any drawings necessary to understand the invention under 35 U.S.C. 113.
If the provisional patent application is not prepared correctly, a subsequent regular non-provisional patent application may not be able to use the priority date of the provisional.
This problem may become more serious when there are disclosures of the invention occurring before the provisional application filing date.
Depending on the timing, if an inventor cannot claim the priority date of the provisional application (because it was not prepared properly), then the inventor may lose all rights to his or her invention.
Inventors may believe they can just throw something into the US Patent Office as a provisional application, and then fix it later.
However, it may not be able to be fixed later.
If you have any question regarding provisional patent applications consult with a registered patent attorney, such as Walter J. Tencza, Jr., Esq., PATENTNOW.COM®.
Copyright 2014 Walter Jr. Tencza, Jr. , Esq., All Rights Reserved.
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