Does a provisional patent application allow us to present our tech publicly?

Question

For example, could we present the technology in pitches to investors? What is an investor's take on a provisional patent application?

or

Answers: 4 public & 1 private

407362b526
Patent Attorney

I generally agree with Steven and Bart.

This means in simple terms:

As Steven points out, a US provisional patent application is a cheap and simple instrument that allows you to present publicly while retaining the option of patent protection for a maximum period of one year.

As Bart points out, in practice, there are almost always also certain risks associated with the 'simple' and 'cheap' nature of US provisional patents.

An investor handling IP assessment professionally will at least do a limited due diligence exercise on your provisional patent application, which will certainly reveal some of these risks, as in practice, when US provisional patents are considered for budgetary reasons, chances are high you have cut some corners. Such an investor will however also take into consideration whether such a provisional patent application was a tool best fit for purpose, taking into account for example the budgetary context, product development phase, etc.

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