The decision of what patent application to file

On behalf of Kaufhold & Dix Patent Law posted in Patent Law on Wednesday, June 21, 2017.

Many decisions can come up for an inventor during the process of pursuing a patent. What choices are made in these decisions can have major ramifications regarding how able an inventor is to achieve their goals and aims regarding their invention and the protection of it. So, how accurate of information an inventor has on how good of a fit the various choices available to them would be for their particular circumstances can matter quite a bit when such decisions come up. This is why the advice and representation of a skilled patent attorney can be a crucial thing for an inventor to have throughout the various decisions related to the patent process.

Among the decisions the U.S. patent process presents for an inventor is the decision of what patent application to file. An inventor could either first file a provisional patent application, or go straight to filing a nonprovisional application.

Why does what decision an inventor makes on this front matter? Well, as we note on our page on provisional and nonprovisional applications, there are numerous differences between these two types of applications. This includes differences in what things they can provide to an inventor and what processes they involve. For example, a nonprovisional application can result in a patent being granted, while a provisional application, all by itself, cannot.

These differences mean that what application an inventor opts to file can have significant ramifications regarding their overall situation. So, understanding how in line the likely implications of each type of patent application are with their overall goals are among the things that can be very important for an inventor when deciding what type of patent application to file.