The later-filed U.S. patent application uses the provisional application's filing date as a priority date. The 20-year patent term begins with the filing of the regular U. S. application, and not with the filing of the provisional application. The priority date is not only valid in the United States. Although Congress' intent was to place U.S. inventors on an equal level of protection with other inventors, the amendments to the patent code implementing the URAA were not restricted solely to U.S. inventors. Therefore, the practical effect of this domestic priority system is to allow any inventor to file provisional applications and to enjoy the benefits of such applications.
Provisional applications differ from regular U.S. patent applications.
Provisional applications are not published. They are kept in confidence by the Patent and Trademark Office. And because provisional applications are intended to be just an available intermediate step towards a regular U.S. patent application, provisional applications are never examined by the Patent and Trademark Office. If within the 12-month span, a corresponding regular patent application is filed, then such application may claim the provisional application's filing date as the date of priority. Provisional applications have less stringent filing requirements than their regular application counterpart.