What is a U.S. provisional patent application?

The provisions of the United States Provisional Patent Application (PPA) were first put forward by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on1June 9, 995 and implemented in the United States. Article 1 1 1 (b) of the United States Patent Law points out some conditions related to the provisional patent application, that is, the specification and drawings are needed to establish the filing date; To maintain the filing date, it is necessary to submit the application fee and the name of the inventor within the prescribed time limit. Article 1 19 (e) points out that the provisional patent application (hereinafter referred to as "provisional patent") gives priority to the applicant, and its protection period is 1 year. Within this protection period and scope, only the holders of "temporary patents" can file related patent applications. However, after filing a patent application in the form of a temporary application, a request for conversion must be formally submitted to the US Patent and Trademark Office within 1 year to convert the "temporary patent" into a formal application, otherwise the "temporary patent" will automatically become invalid after 1 year. The contents of a formal application shall include the contents of a temporary patent application and the contents of rewriting.

What is a U.S. provisional patent application?

Temporary application is a special system in American patent application. This is a simplified informal application filed in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It does not need to prepare complete and detailed patent claims, statements, application documents and other materials, as long as it meets the minimum formal requirements, it can submit an application. It should be noted that the U.S. provisional patent application cannot be granted a patent right, but a formal application can be submitted within 12 months from the filing date of the provisional application.

What are the benefits of the U.S. provisional patent application?

1. The documents for filing the provisional application for US patent are relatively simple, and the application fee is relatively cheap.

2. Applying for a temporary patent in the United States will not disclose the invention information, thus effectively protecting the invention secret.

3. Before the traditional patent application and paying more fees, we can make full use of the one-year "patent pending approval" of the temporary patent application (the patent has been applied but not yet released) to evaluate the commercial potential of the invention. If you decide to modify the invention within one year, you can apply for a new temporary patent and merge the two temporary applications into a regular application.