Posts Tagged: "provisional patents"

The first thing to say is this: there is no such thing as a provisional patent. You can, however, file what is known as a provisional patent application. A provisional patent application will never itself mature into an issued patent, but in the right circumstance (and done properly) a provisional patent application can be a very useful tool for inventors. This is particularly true now that the United States is a first to file country, which absolutely must be interpreted as inventors needing to file first before disclosing anything about the invention, offering it for sale or using the invention publicly.

RUSS KRAJEC: Getting a patent is not the end goal. Using an issued patent is not the end goal. It’s the beginning for the startup. Think about how you are going to use this asset in your business, and then craft that asset to match that business goal. When you do that, you make much better use of your time and energy. So many people who are looking for a paper trophy or a plaque on the wall, and they don’t understand what they’re going do when this asset shows up, and if that’s the case, why bother doing it?

The challenge when you are filing a patent application is you don’t know if the invention will become the next billion dollar drug. As you can imagine, if a patent which is relying on a provisional patent application does serve as the basis for a successful product, the provisional application will then be closely reviewed. In other words if you a claiming priority to the provisional patent application and the the provisional was submitted without much due diligence then you are in a bit of trouble!

It is important to understand what a provisional patent application is, what benefits are provided and perhaps most importantly what a provisional patent application is not. First and foremost, there is no such thing as a provisional patent. It is absolutely critical to understand that a provisional application will never mature into an issued patent! Ultimately, if you are going to want to obtain a patent you will need to file a non-provisional patent application. Thus, a provisional patent application is best viewed as an economical first step on the path to a patent.

One excellent way to make sure you are including an appropriately detailed description that treats a variety of variations and alternatives is to have many professional patent drawings. You should then describe what each drawing shows. The quickest way to explain what you want to do is by way of example. The popular children’s song “Skeleton Bones” explains how all the bones in the body are connected. The leg bone is connected to the knee bone, which is connected to the thigh bone, which is in turn connected to the back bone, which is connected to the neck and so on. Notice that this is a very general overview of how the bones in the body are connected. This is a good first step, but there is a lot more that can and should be written.

As Key works with inventors he coaches, who he refers to as students because he teaches them how to do much of the work for themselves, he explained that increasingly he is seeing interest on the part of companies in licensing inventions without a patent attached to the product. ”What we have noticed is that companies say they care about patents, but the bottom line is really about speed to market and how fast they are going to be able to sell them,” Key explained. ”The life cycle for products is so short.”

When setting out on a new endeavor it is not wise to pursue a path to the end and then ask whether what you did was correct. You should seek help along the way to make sure you are doing what is required. Otherwise you are likely to get to a point where the most economical solution is simply to start over.

In order to protect an idea it must mature into an invention first. This means that you need to be able to explain to others how to make and use the invention so that they could replicate the invention after simply reading your description of the invention in a patent application. A patent application does not need to provide blue-print level detail, but rather it must teach those who have skill in the area you are innovating what they need to know to be able to carry out the invention. You also do not need to have a prototype, but you will need to be able to describe the invention with detail, providing sketches showing your inventive contribution. In order to get this far it is common for inventors to seek assistance from a product development company…

There are ways that inventors can file for patent protection on their inventions with a limited budget, but even then you have to be realistic in the costs of this undertaking. It is critical to remember though that this is a process, and in order to do it right there are several steps that need to take place and each of these steps will take time and money. You cannot simply write down on a piece of paper what your invention is, and get a patent. If you follow these necessary steps of the process, and use the resources available to you, you can file a respectable patent application at a somewhat reasonable cost. But keep in mind that even if you are relatively Internet savvy and an educated individual, without the assistance of a Licensed Patent Attorney, the chances of things being missed or written incorrectly, increase exponentially.

Whether that provisional patent application can ever be useful moving forward is unknown and unknowable at the time it is filed, which allows for those who knowingly or unknowingly peddle bad services or bad advice to largely hide behind the unknown. In fact, you won’t know whether the provisional patent application was worthwhile in terms of disclosure until you later need to rely on the disclosure to establish your priority filing date. If your disclosure was not complete you have nothing useful, and potentially may have compromised all right to obtain a patent. You may not realize that the provisional patent application you filed was defective until after you file the non-provisional patent application and you are now in prosecution working with the patent examiner who won’t give you the priority benefit of the earlier filed provisional because it discloses little or nothing. Filing a defective provisional patent application can be catastrophic.

Like any other patent application, a provisional patent application is effective to stop the clock relative to so-called statutory bars and immediately upon filing a provisional patent application you can say you have a “patent pending.” Perhaps most importantly, now that the United States has become a first to file country and abandoned our historic first to invent ways it is critically important to file a patent application as soon as practically possible. Filing a provisional patent application that adequately describes the invention will establish priority and satisfies the need to act swiftly under first to file rules. A well prepared provisional patent application is your best friend in a first to file world.

Without a patent pending you also don’t have anything to license other than an idea that lacks tangible boundaries. While that is not always an impediment to moving forward, the further you can develop your idea the better. The more tangible the more valuable. So an idea is worth something to some people, but an idea that has taken more shape and is really an invention is worth even more. An invention that has been defined in a provisional patent application is worth more, and of course an issued patent takes away much of the risk and questions associated with whether your invention is new and unique. But now we are getting ahead of ourselves. The business of inventing needs to be considered a marathon — not a sprint. Take things one step at a time, proceed deliberately and invest little by little and only so long as it makes financial sense. That is why starting with a provisional patent application is frequently the best thing to do.