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Provisional application

Definition

A simplified, lower-cost patent application that establishes a priority datepriority dateThe earliest date used to compare the patent against prior art. Usually equals the filing date.Read more → and allows an inventorinventorThe person who actually conceived the invention. Listed on the patent regardless of who owns it.Read more → to claimclaimA numbered sentence at the end of a patent that legally defines what the inventor owns. The most important section.Read more → "patent pending" status for 12 months. A provisionalprovisionalA simplified, lower-cost patent application that locks in a filing date for 12 months while the inventor refines or pitches.Read more → is never examined and never becomes a patent on its own. The inventor must file a non-provisional applicationprovisional applicationA simplified, lower-cost patent application that establishes a filing date. Must be converted within 12 months.Read more → within 12 months or lose the priority date entirely. Provisionals are commonly used to lock in a date while refining the invention or seeking funding.

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Provisional Patent GeneratorProvisional vs Non-Provisional

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Non-provisional application

The "full" patent application examined by the USPTO — as opposed to a provisional application, which is a placeholder. A non-provisional application must include a complete specification, drawings (if necessary), at least one claim, and payment of the filing fee. The non-provisional is what gets examined and, if allowed, issues as a patent.

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Claim

The numbered sentences at the end of a patent that define exactly what is legally protected. Claims are the only part of a patent that determine infringement — if a product or process doesn't fall within the scope of at least one claim, there is no infringement. Every other part of a patent (abstract, drawings, specification) exists to support and illuminate the claims.

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Inventor

The person (or persons) who conceived the claimed invention. Inventorship is a legal concept distinct from contribution to a project — someone who merely built what was designed, or who had a general idea that was made more specific by someone else, may not qualify as an inventor. Incorrectly listing inventors can invalidate a patent.

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Patent

A government-granted right that gives an inventor the exclusive right to prevent others from making, using, selling, or importing a patented invention within the country that granted the patent, for a limited time. A patent does not give the owner the right to practice the invention — only the right to exclude others. The US issues three types: utility, design, and plant patents.

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Patent pending

A notice that a patent application has been filed with the USPTO but has not yet been examined or granted. "Patent pending" provides no legal protection against copying — it simply puts the public on notice that a patent may issue. If a patent does issue, the patentee may be able to collect reasonable royalties going back to the publication date of the application.

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Priority date

The date that determines whether a piece of prior art counts against a patent application. In the US, the priority date is typically the filing date of the earliest application in a patent family to which the current application claims priority. Under the first-to-file system (post-AIA), the inventor with the earliest priority date wins if two people file on the same invention.

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