7. What is a provisional patent application? What are its advantages ?

7. What is a provisional patent application?

Table of Contents

The Purpose of this article is to help you understand:

  • Provisional patent application can be filed at early stage of your invention, even if you are not yet ready with invention
  • It help in getting early priority date (filing date) and ‘patent pending’ status
  • You can find out answers to questions without requiring to develop full invention or to go for complete patent process: questions such as
    • is there any demand in the market for my invention ?
    • can I make money from it ? and
    • is it worth to proceed with the complete patent process ?
  • It can save you money by low upfront cost and by not proceeding for patent procedure for inventions which are not worth investing in. 

There are few questions that can cross your mind like :

  • Is there any way that I could find-out if my patent is really worth filing ?
  • is there demand in the market for this invention ?
  • can I make money from it ?
  • and then only I will proceed with the investment in complete patent process

Let’s assume a situation where, you are working on an innovative idea or invention and it is still work in progress and a lot of research to be done yet before you finalise or complete the invention.

What if there is a way by which  :

  • you can check the commercial potential and commercial worth of my invention before going for investment in  full patent process? 
  • where you need not be fully ready with the invention still you can get patent pending status
  • and where you can save money by not going for full patent process costs and investments in inventions which may not be worth in the market
  • and you can do all this at a low upfront cost

This is achieved by filing Provisional Patent Application for your invention

When you are at a stage in your research and development work where it can be disclosed on paper but it’s not a final invention, then you can go for provisional patent application and submit it to the patent office to secure the priority date of the invention.

It gives following benefits:

  • Secures filing date
  • 12 months of time to file complete patent application
  • Low upfront cost

Filing the provisional patent application is an optional step, if you are at the stage where you have complete information about your invention then you can directly go for complete specification.

A provisional patent application is not a rough draft; it defines the scope of invention. Even if you file a complete specification later it does not replace the provisional specification, it still remains in the record. The patent office accords the filing date and patent application number to the provisional specification received.

If the complete specification is not filed within 12 months from the filing date of provisional specification, the patent application is treated as deemed to have been abandoned.

How provisional application could save costs in getting patent in India?

If we see a typical life cycle of a patent owner, the most preferred way you get your ROI with the patents is by licensing it to other businesses. The Success in licensing your patent to other businesses (also known as patent commercialisation) lies in how you talk to decision-makers and project the advantages and potential profits by licensing rights for your patented invention.

but, you don’t always need to go for full patent procedure to find out if anyone interested in licensing your patented invention. instead of going for a complete patent application, you can choose to go with a provisional patent application, and as soon as you got it filed you secure the priority date or filing date for patent.

Now you have patent pending status, and hence you may proceed with almost 90 to 95% things you wanted to do with your invention with out the fear of it being stolen or with a fear of loosing novelty.

  • you can reach interested businesses to find it’s commercially worth and potential parties interested in licensing your patent
  • you can start commercially selling your invention
  • You can contact investors, bankers, tie-ups, supply chain, manufacturers etc.
  • you can almost do anything like selling the provisional patent application to other interested business

but only thing you need to wait for grant of patent is when you want to stop others from copying your invention or file a suit against infringement of your patented invention. that is the only thing you need to wait till grant of patent.

Advantages of Provisional patent application

Low upfront cost

You end up paying much less for filing a provisional application than filing a complete patent application.

You can say “Patent Pending”:

Although a provisional patent is not actually a patent and it will not be converted to a complete patent application unless you take further steps… You legally can write “Patent Pending” for your invention. (product prototype) upon filing a provisional patent, you have secured the priority date as its filing date, so you need not worry about confidentiality when marketing or disclosing your invention (product prototypes)

Time to let invention Evolve:

Filing a complete patent application at a very early stage of the invention may not get you fullest potential of the invention, filing provisional application secures your priority date (That is you are now eligible to have priority date as provisional application filing date although you are not ready with complete invention / complete patent application yet; Provided the scope of the complete patent application filed later remains same) and gives you enough time to work on your invention to the fullest possible potential.

Time to test the commercial potential:

Having secured the priority date by filing a provisional application, you can test few things like:

  • The willingness of other businesses to license your invention then patented
  • Get an understanding of the commercial worth of invention
  • Get time to evolve the invention to its fullest potential
  • Time to conduct real market research to confirm the marketability of the invention

In effect, you get full 12 months of time to decide whether to move ahead with a complete patent application or not, as during this period you can do extensive market research and find the commercial worth of your invention without worrying about it being stolen or losing the confidentiality.

You can abandon the provisional patent application: (it can saves you money)

In case you happened to find out that the invention for which you already have filed a provisional patent application is not worth going ahead for full patent protections for some reasons like:

  • The invention is not worth that much commercially
  • No one is willing to buy, license it neither are you willing to produce the invention, etc.

You actually save thousands of rupees, you otherwise would have spent on directly going for a complete patent application, and if at all decided to abandon it in between for some reason.

It will Eventually become patent granted (by procedure)

The provisional patent can become granted patent in most of the countries if the complete patent application is filed within 12 months from the filing date of the provisional patent and the entire patent procedure is followed till the grant of the patent. (Provided the invention is not rejected by the controller)

In such cases, for the issued patent in given countries, you have the benefit of an earlier priority date (that is filing date of the provisional patent) as priority date is the main decider relating to prior arts and novelty of the invention in most of the cases.

Things to consider when going for Provisional Application

Mistakes to avoid in Provisional Application :

care should be taken while writing provisional patent application for your invention.

It is a scope defining document:

A provisional application is not a rough draft of your idea or invention. In fact, it defines the scope of your invention. So every part (element) of your invention which is outside the scope of the provisional application and you happened to develop in the 12 months time (that is at the time of filing the complete patent application) will fail to have the earlier priority date (filing date of provisional application). This means the part of the invention you developed after filing provisional which is outside the scope which is set by the provisional application will not have the advantage of the priority date of the provisional application.

Even if you file a complete specification later it does not replace the provisional specification, it still remains in the record.

The patent office allocates the filing date and patent application number to the provisional application received. If the complete specification is not filed within 12 months from the filing date of provisional specification, the patent application is treated as deemed to have been abandoned.

The applicant who has filed a provisional patent application must file a non-provisional patent application during the 12-month pendency period of the provisional application in order to benefit from the earlier filing of the provisional application.

The description of the invention should not be limiting:

The language used in a patent application plays an important role in defining its scope: While writing a description for invention, you should avoid using limiting words like “must-have” “consists” “essential” Instead try to describe elements of the invention with as broad scope as possible: You can use terms like a “writing device” instead of directly saying “a pen” which would be of limited scope and can eliminate other writing devices like a pencil from the scope.

Contents of Provisional patent application

  • Title of the invention
  • Description of the invention starts with preamble ‘The following Specification describes the invention.’
  • The description contains
    • The field of invention and containing the background of the invention,
    • The object of the invention and statement of the invention.
  • Claims may or may not be part of the Provisional Specification.

Conclusion :

  • good innovative ideas can be converted to a property (intellectual property like patent) by working on it to create invention, then protecting it by patent and then commercialising the patent for making profits.
  • innovative idea is a starting point and there are steps and actions to be taken to find out if it is capable of an invention that can win patent and if it has commercial potential in the market to be profitable.
  • Provisional Patent application is the way to find out if there is any demand in the market for this invention ? can I make money from it ? without requiring complete invention yet and without requiring the investment in complete patent process.
  • provisional patent application secures early filing date and eventually becomes granted patent by following complete procedure.

You may schedule a short call with us by writing your name, email and contact number along with a single line about your requirement and you will get an automated email response from us on your email instantly along with required information, videos and required documents in attachment. Fill your information here to receive all information on email

Prasad Karhad
Latest posts by Prasad Karhad (see all)