Provisional Patent Applications

What a provisional does

A US provisional application establishes a filing date for what it adequately describes. It is not examined and does not become a patent by itself. To keep the benefit of that date you generally need to file a non-provisional application within twelve months.

Its value depends on the quality of the disclosure. A thin description protects little, so we build it from your real architecture, variants and fallback positions.

What we put into it

• The core system, method or composition, described in enough technical detail to support later claims
• Alternative implementations and ranges, so the filing is not narrower than your thinking
• Figures and flow diagrams that match how engineers explain the work
• Early claim-style statements to anchor what matters commercially

Good claims define the scope of protection, and the description must let a skilled person carry out the invention without undue experimentation. Both are written for the requirements of the office that will examine them.

Choosing the filing route

• Provisional application. Suits an invention still taking shape. It sets a priority date and gives twelve months to file a complete application.
• Complete (non-provisional) application. The standard filing for a fully developed invention, with a detailed specification and claims.
• Paris Convention route. Gives twelve months from the first filing to file in other countries and claim that date. It is simpler but needs faster decisions.
• PCT route. A single international application that keeps the option of entering many countries open for roughly 30 months from the priority date. It gives more planning time but involves more steps and cost.