Question
Hi! I have heard a lot about provisional patent applications in the US, which are supposed to be really popular with startups. I'm not quite sure what the difference to a regular patent is, could you perhaps give some pointers? Also, since we are currently focusing our product development on the European market, what would be the equivalent in terms of European patents?
Answers: 5 public & 0 private
A provisional patent application will never by itself lead to a patent - a provisional patent application enables one to file a patent application at the earliest possible time until, for example, they finalize development of their invention, or raise necessary funds, or to assess the commercial market. A provisional patent application must, however, effectively be as complete, accurate, and thorough as a non-provisioal application because it needs to provide an enabling disclosure so as to serve as a priority date document for the later-filed non-provisional application or a PCT application - also note that the non-provisional and/or PCT application must be filed within one year of the filing of the provisional application. Only by converting the provisional application to a non-provisional or PCT application, is one able to obtain a patent. In addition, note that once you file a provisional application, if you develop further improvements or embodiments of the invention, you can file additional provisional applications for such improvements or embodiments, however, your non-provisional or PCT application, which should obviously encompass all of your provisional applications, improvements, and embodiments, must be filed within one year from your first provisional application filing date.
As for provisional patent applications in Europe, they do exist - check with a European patent professional for specifics re European provisional applications.
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