Provisional Patent - Often Misunderstood

Monday, February 8, 2010 10:21 pm

There are some misunderstandings relating to a Provisional Patent. It is often misused by inventors, television hucksters and misguided invention companies. To help bring a little clarity to this topic, I consulted with my son Robert, a Licensed Patent Practitioner and President of Montgomery Patent & Design.

Misunderstanding #1: I have a Provisional Patent.

Provisional Patents do not exist. It is actually a Provisional Patent “application” establishing priority rights which could be continued within one year into a Utility Patent application.

Misunderstanding #2: Receiving an Official Filing Receipt from the Patent Office means that I have a patent and no one can steal my idea or sell anything like it.

This is not true. Although a provisional application receives an official filing date from the Patent Office, the Filing Receipt does not bestow patent rights. A provisional application will not be searched or examined, it will never become a patent unless converted to a utility application that issues, it will automatically expire in one year, the application can not be renewed or re-filed, no patent certificate is issued by the Patent Office, you cannot legally stop anyone from selling a similar product, and the Patent Office’s “Reference Number” is not a Patent Number.

There is a lot more to discuss about Provisional Patent Applications, but correcting these two major misconceptions is a good start. We’ll address this topic further in the future.

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Provisional Patent - Often Misunderstood

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