Can I Change The Name On My Provisional Patent

This article assumes you have basic knowledge as to what a provisional patent application is. It also abbreviates provisional patent application as simply 'provisional patent'.

A conditional patent application cannot be renewed. Instead, you lot tin can either i) Re-file a new 1 or 2) Extend information technology 18 additional months with a PCT Patent Application. For this article, we presume y'all do not extend the provisional patent application using a Percent merely rather, take the selection to re-file a new conditional patent application and let the old provisional patent awarding expire. This has risks which are explained.

A provisional patent lasts for 12 months and to keep the filing date of the provisional patent, you must file a not-provisional patent application before the 12 months are up. If y'all are non ready to file a non-provisional patent application earlier the 12 months are up, what y'all can do is file a new provisional patent awarding. Withal, doing so has consequences explained in this commodity. When yous file a new provisional patent you lot will get a new filing date and the filing engagement of your previous provisional patent will notwithstanding elapse. An old conditional patent and a new provisional patent are independent of each other. Filing a new provisional patent does not affect the quondam provisional patent. Let'due south report this important concept with an instance.

Allow'south say you filed a conditional patent awarding on 2/one/2010 which will expire on two/i/2011. We will call this provisional patent 'Provisional A'.

Your electric current filing date is two/1/2010, which is the date y'all filed the conditional patent. To keep your 2/1/2010 appointment, yous demand to file a non-provisional patent application before the provisional patent expires on 2/i/2011. If this is not done before 2/ane/2011, the conditional patent will expire and the 2/ane/2010 date will be lost.

If you lot decide to file a new provisional patent, that new provisional patent gets its own date. Allow'south say you file a new provisional patent on ane/xx/2011. We will phone call this new provisional patent 'Provisional B'.

Considering you do not file a non-conditional patent before the expiration of Conditional A, Provisional A will elapse on its expiration engagement of 2/one/2011. The fact that you filed Conditional B has no impact on Conditional A. These two are independent of each other. Once again, the manner to keep the 2/1/2010 date of Provisional A is to file the not-conditional patent application before Conditional A expires on 2/1/2011. If y'all do not, Provisional A will expire on 2/1/2011 and disappear, leaving you with just Provisional B, seen beneath.

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Doing the above to re-file a new provisional patent tin can take major consequences. Allow'south go over the aforementioned example again simply this time with a twist. You file Provisional A on ii/1/2010. And then, let's say you took your invention to a merchandise evidence and someone there copies your idea and files his own patent application a month later on three/1/2010.

You can encounter above that your filing date is 2/one/2010 and the competitor'southward date is 3/1/2010 and so you are fine being ahead of him in line. The patent office will see that you are beginning to file the patent application because your date is earlier the competitor's date. You will get kickoff take a chance to get this patent before the competitor can considering your date is earlier. Nonetheless, to keep this 2/1/2010 date, remember that y'all need to convert the provisional into a non-provisional patent before the expiration of the provisional on ii/one/2011.

Let'due south say you do file the non-provisional on i/31/2011 for Provisional A before it expires on ii/i/2011. Because you filed the non-provisional patent before the provisional expired, the not-conditional gets to inherit the 2/one/2010 date of the provisional and the two/i/2010 date will not disappear. You get to proceed this appointment throughout the patenting procedure. The patent office will go on to see that your ii/ane/2010 appointment is before the competitor'southward 3/i/2010 date and yous are ahead in line.

All the same, what happens if you exercise non file the not-provisional and instead make up one's mind to file a new provisional? Let's say you file a new provisional patent application on 1/20/2011 which we will telephone call Provisional B. This date of filing the new Provisional B in our example is not important to the concept. You could have filed the new Provisional B before or afterward the expiration date of Provisional A and the event would be the same. This is because Provisional A and Provisional B are completely independent of each other. One does not affect the other.

Since y'all practise not catechumen Conditional A into a non-conditional before its expiration appointment on 2/1/2011, Provisional A volition elapse and disappear afterward the 2/1/2011 expiration date. The event later on 2/1/2011 is below:

You can see above that once your Conditional A expired and disappeared, you lot are left with only Conditional B. Your Provisional B date is 1/20/2011. Your competitor'due south three/i/2010 engagement is now in front of you in line. Your competitor previously was after you in line when you had Provisional A. Withal, once Provisional A expired, y'all lost your Provisional A date. Even though you lot re-filed a new Provisional B, the filing date of Provisional B is later than when the competitor filed. The competitor has now moved in front of you and the Patent Part will permit him first opportunity to get the patent before y'all.

The key concept here is that when re-filing the conditional patent, you get a new date. Your old date will continue to disappear if you do not file the non-provisional earlier the old provisional patent expires. Once the old provisional patent disappears, someone who used to exist behind y'all line may suddenly go in front of you in line.

This is specially important now afterwards the 2013 America Invents Deed which puts the US in a "Get-go To File" organisation. First to File means that the patent office will look at patentability based on who is starting time to file the patent application. Fifty-fifty though you lot may have invented it earlier a competitor, if you don't file before that competitor, and continue your date, that competitor may bound in front of you. It's all about the filing date and who has the earliest date!

Further, your new date could affect if your invention is still patentable nether the 1 yr grace menstruum rule. Under this rule, a patent application must be filed within 1 year of your first public disclosure of the invention. For example, if you lot showed your invention to the public, on a website or YouTube, for case, your patent application must be dated within i year of that date of public disclosure. If you lot file a new provisional patent application, your date is the new date. Your old date is lost if yous did not convert that one-time conditional patent application into a non-conditional patent application. If your new date is more than 1 twelvemonth subsequently your commencement public disclosure, the patent office may reject your patent application when you convert the provisional patent into a non-provisional patent. For more detail on this, please see When Should I File a Patent Awarding?

The conclusion is that you should always try to convert your provisional patent into a not-conditional patent application before the provisional expires, to keep the primeval filing date. If unable to do and then, yous can re-file a new provisional patent. However, your quondam conditional patent will proceed to expire and disappear, and you will lose your old filing date and get a new filing engagement, potentially allowing someone who used to be backside you in line to become in forepart of y'all in line, or potentially having a patent application date that is more 12 months past your first public disclosure. Both of these situations may preclude y'all from getting a patent application approved.

© April iii, 2014 Thoughts to Paper LLC

Source: https://www.thoughtstopaper.com/knowledge/can-i-renew-a-provisional-patent-application.php

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