Patent Application (Provisional)

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Patent Application (Provisional)

A provisional patent application is a means which gives an inventor more time to submit a conventional patent application. The provisional application is not examined, can never result in a patent, must be followed up with a conventional application within one year in order to preserve filing priority, allows an inventor to mark a product "patent pending", and is less expensive than a conventional application. Provisional patent applications are useful when an invention is not completed and needs further development and/or testing, when time is needed to obtain financing, evaluate marketability, arrange for manufacturing or licensing, or just before an invention is going to be disclosed to the public in order to preserve foreign filing rights.