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prior art cited against the application. Once the application is resolved, the patent examiner issues a Notice of Allowance that states that the USPTO has agreed to issue a patent.
What is the difference between a provisional patent application and a non-provisional (or utility) patent application?
A provisional patent application is a legal tool that can be used to preserve patent rights while temporarily reducing costs and providing extra time to prepare a non-provisional (utility) application. When filed with the USPTO, it establishes the effective filing date (priority date) of a patent application. The provisional application has a term of only one year, and is not examined by the USPTO. At the end of that time period, the applicant must elect to either abandon the application or convert it to a non-provisional patent application in order to maintain the benefit of the provisional application’s filing date.
Are patent applications confidential?
The USPTO keeps non-provisional patent applications confidential
until they are published, approximately 18 months after the initial filing date. After that time, both the application and the USPTO’s prosecution materials related to the application are publicly available. Provisional applications are not published.
How is a foreign patent application filed?
Foreign patent protection is subject to the laws of each individual country, but the process is similar to the patent system in the U.S. If you are interested in pursuing patent protection for an invention outside of the U.S., OTD will usually direct outside legal counsel to file a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application. The Patent Cooperation Treaty is an international patent law treaty
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