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A provisional application is a patent application filed at the intellectual property offices of some countries. It does not mature into an issued patent and is deemed abandoned one year after its filing. It is used to secure a filing date for a subsequent non-provisional patent application claiming priority of the provisional application.
A complete non-provisional application differs from a provisional in that a non-provisional must contain at least one claim and is to be examined. A non-provisional application may also claim priority to a prior filed application, which is not permitted with provisional applications.
A provisional application for patent provides more benefits and protections to inventors than a disclosure document and can be used for the same purposes as a disclosure document if necessary. ... A non-provisional application must be filed within twelve months of the filing date of a provisional patent in order for the inventor to claim the ...
The original patent term under the 1790 Patent Act was decided individually for each patent, but "not exceeding fourteen years". The 1836 Patent Act (5 Stat. 117, 119, 5) provided (in addition to the fourteen-year term) an extension "for the term of seven years from and after the expiration of the first term" in certain circumstances, when the inventor hasn't got "a reasonable remuneration for ...
Another unique feature of the US patent practice is a provisional patent application, which allows an inventor to establish a priority and gives them a year to improve on their invention before filing a complete (i.e. non-provisional) patent application.
In order for a US provisional application to establish a priority date for a future full (i.e. non-provisional) standard patent application, the disclosure in the provisional must be enabling. Claims are not required in a provisional application, although it is advised to have them, since claims may contribute to enabling disclosure.
This right to obtain provisional damages requires a patent holder to show that (1) the infringing activities occurred after the publication of the patent application, (2) the patented claims are substantially identical to the claims in the published application, and (3) the infringer had "actual notice" of the published patent application.
"divisional applications on the applicant's own initiative (so-called voluntary divisional applications) will need to be filed within a period of two years from the first communication by the EPO examining division in respect of the parent (i.e. the previous) or an even earlier (in case of a "chain" of applications) application."