Typically, a provisional patent application is filed by the inventor(s) if the product or concept is still in the development stage or if the inventor(s) wants early protection for the invention while the full specification of the invention is still not yet fully ready.

A Provisional Patent Application is a patent application, filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office to obtain a (1)one year protection of the inventive concept disclosed in the provisional application. A provisional patent application ensures protection of an invention before the filing of a non provisional patent application. A provisional application allows the product to be marked "Patent Pending" for (1) one year from the filing date of the provisional application. The non-provisional application is required to be filed within one year from the date of filing the provisional application to obtain the priority date (i.e. the date of the first filed application), failing which, the provisional patent application expires.

The firm files provisional patent applications on a regular basis with patent offices all over the world and maintains a docket of the client's IP portfolio. We then send reminders to our clients to file their non-provisional patent application well before the filing deadlines for the PCT and non-provisional applications.

Although, the US Patent Office does not require any claims to be entered in a provisional patent application, the provisional patent application is drafted with claims to effectively capture the client's inventive concept.