Well, that depends on whether the patent application has been published or not. In the simplest case, U.S. patent applications are published 18 months after filing. The 18 month timeframe may be shorter if the patent application validly claims priority to the filing date of an earlier application (e.g. a parent application). In that case, the application is said to have a priority date as of the filing date of the parent application. Then publication is 18 months from the priority date..