Provisional Patent Application FAQ

April 27, 2004 on 10:08 pm | In Uncategorized |

What is a provisional patent application (hereinafter “PPA”)?

As a result of GATT, the U.S. Patent System added this new form of application in 1995. A PPA is basically a temporary (provisional) patent application that goes irretrievably abandoned one year from the date of filing. If the applicant wishes to keep the priority date of the PPA, the PPA must either be converted to a non-provisional patent application (NPPA) OR a NPPA must be filed claiming priority from the PPA. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I’ll refer you to a more detailed explanation on the USPTO site called “Provisional Application for Patent.”

What are some of the advantages of a PPA?

1. Short term financial considerations. The PPA has a lower filing fee ($100 vs. $500 (NPPA)).

2. Emergencies. Sometimes an emergency filing is all you can garnish…i.e., the situation where the client comes into your office to talk about the tradeshow they are going to in the morning.

3. Term. Theoretically, by first filing a PPA, an applicant can push the term of its issued patent back a year (patents expire 20 years from the date of filing of a NPPA…not of the earlier filed PPA).

What are some of the disadvantages of a PPA?

1. Long term financial considerations. If you have a patent attorney draft two applications (the PPA followed by a NPPA)…you are going to pay more attorneys fees.

2. Time. Time is money. Let’s assume an applicant has chosen to file a PPA and wait the full year until the NPPA is filed. Being that most buyers want to buy an issued patent instead of a pending patent application…said applicant has theoretically needlessly drawn out the time until he/she can be bought out.

Another thing to consider:  File Provisional Applications with Declarations.  See this APLF patent update.

UPDATE 1:  Corrected filing fee [November 19, 2004].  UPDATE 2:  Corrected filing fee [June 28, 2005].

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