Provisional applications do not require any claims. As you’ve learned, these are at the heart of every patent application. Since they are missing a vital element of an application, provisionals are never examined or never even sent to an examiner! Instead, they expire after 12 months, no matter what.
So what is the point of one of these “lite” applications?
Well, provisional applications are filed to hold the idea behind the invention until the inventor has the time and/or the money to file a regular, nonprovisional application. If a regular, nonprovisional application is filed before the 12 month expiration of the provisional, then the nonprovisional application will receive the earlier provisional filing date. If a nonprovisional application claiming the invention disclosed in the provisional is never filed, the invention will eventually become unpatentable.
Since these applications are not ever even examined, there are only a few requirements for filing one. Basically, provisional applications must include a specification that describes the invention and any drawings necessary to help visualize it.
The specification is the major component (and we’ll get to that in a moment), although the PTO also expects a cover sheet identifying the application as provisional. Without the indication that the application is provisional, it will be treated as a nonprovisional application and will therefore be sent right back to the applicant because it will be missing many requirements of a nonprovisional application.
In addition to identifying the application as a provisional application, the cover sheet must also contain the name and residence of each inventor, the address any correspondence should be sent to, the title of the invention, the registration number of any patent practitioners who may have helped write it, and a few other odds and ends.
Basically, that is it. A specification describing the invention, any necessary drawings, a cover sheet and of course a fee must be filed in order to secure the filing date for a provisional application.
Related posts:
You must log in to post a comment.