Some inventors may need time to decide whether to proceed with a more expensive regular U.S. patent application. An early priority date from a provisional application may be desired by the inventor for prior-art purposes or when a disclosure of the invention is imminent. Filing a provisional application causes absolute novelty to be protected in Paris Convention member countries. Provisional applications protect against this threat. The new provisional application can offer a quick and economic way to obtain a priority date in the United States.
Provisional applications have several advantages to consider.
Although provisional applications only reserve a priority date for a later-filed regular U.S. patent application, they are likely to become a very useful tool for inventors worldwide.