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The provisional patent application is designed to provide a lower-cost first patent filing in the United States. It allows patent filing without a formal patent claim, oath or declaration, or any information disclosure statement of pre-existing inventions (prior art). It also allows the term "Patent Pending" to be applied in connection with the description of the invention. By filing a provisional patent, the inventor benefits in three ways:
- The ability to patent the invention can be assessed with less cost and effort than going through the full non-provisional patent process.
- The resulting publication or patent will be given the earlier provisional application filing date.
- The twenty-year patent term is still measured from the later non-provisional application filing date.
Although the provisional application is less involved than the non-provisional application, the provisional application must adequately describe the subject matter claimed in the later-filed non-provisional application to benefit from the provisional application filing date. The specification of the invention in the application should describe the manner and process of making and using the invention, in full, clear, concise and exact terms so that any person "skilled in the art to which the invention pertains" could make and use the invention.
A provisional patent application is good for 12 months from the date it is filed. The 12-month period cannot be extended. Therefore, an applicant who files a provisional application must file a corresponding non-provisional patent application during the 12-month period to benefit from the earlier filing date. By filing a provisional application first, and then filing a corresponding non-provisional application that references the provisional application within the 12-month provisional application pendency period, the term of a patent can be extended by as much as 12 months.
