Ronald J. Koch, P.E.

A Provisional Patent Application is an incomplete application. Its primary purpose is to secure a filing date. You can legally say that your invention is “patent pending” after you obtain a filing date. Otherwise, you cannot legally make this statement. A provisional application will never be examined and will never issue as a patent. The only way to take advantage of it is to file an associated non-provisional patent application within one year of the filing date.

One benefit of a provisional is that it can oftentimes be less expensive than a full blown patent application (“non-provisional" patent application) because it does not have to have claims or comply with other patent office formalities. Because it is incomplete, it must be completed within one year of filing the provisional in order to claim the benefit of the filing date.