Clarification on patent application laws

As a patent lawyer, I read with interest the story in the Jan. 22 Business 380 section regarding changes to patent law. I note some interpretations by the reporter that may lead to misconceptions.

In particular, there is no such a thing as a “provisional patent,” only a provisional patent application. Nor does the filing of a provisional patent application provide any recourse against the copying of an invention.

Submitting a provisional patent application will not lead to a patent by itself, but a provisional patent application can give the inventor an additional year to decide whether to file a “real” (non-provisional) patent application, while preventing loss of patent rights in marketing.

U.S. law gives an inventor the opportunity to market a product or to publicly use it before filing any patent application, but only for one year, after which the patent rights are lost if an application for patent has not been filed. Most foreign governments are not so lenient.

The creation of the provisional patent application procedure by Congress in 1995 was intended to give U.S. inventors a less-expensive alternative for filing a patent application so that their foreign patent opportunities are not lost while marketing efforts are undertaken.

Allan Harms

Cedar Rapids