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Question:
Is a provisional application that is relied upon for priority in a U.S. patent and is abandoned available through the Patent Center?
Answer:
Yes, a provisional application that is relied upon for priority in a U.S. patent and is abandoned may be available through the Patent Center.
Generally though, provisional applications are not published and are generally preserved in confidence, as with any other unpublished application. Therefore, access to or copies of all or part of a provisional application are customarily only made available to the public under limited circumstances.
Chapter Details:
The answer to this question can be found in chapter 100 of the MPEP. This chapter covers Secrecy, Access, National Security, and Foreign Filing.
The answer is from the 9th Edition, Revision 07.2022, Published February 2023. Depending on future changes to the MPEP, the question and answer may or may not be applicable in later Editions or revisions.
Section Summary:
This question and answer comes from section 103 of the MPEP. The following is a brief summary of section 103.
103 Right of Public to Inspect Patent Files and Some Application Files
37 C.F.R. 1.11 discusses the rights the public has to inspect files (such as patents and certain types of applications). This section outlines the exact documents accessible to the public. It includes a brief discussion on accessing image file wrapper (IFW) applications, access to published U.S. patent applications, unpublished abandoned and pending applications that are identified, and access where part of an application is incorporated by reference in a U.S. patent application publication or a U.S. patent.
In addition, this section covers petitions for access by third parties, access where a patent relies on the filing date of an earlier but still pending application, access to provisional applications, access to applications involved in interferences or trials through the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, defensive publications, reissue applications, and requests for reexamination.