Provisional applications are not low-cost substitutes for utility applications Provisional applications are often improperly used as low-cost substitutes for utility applications. The problem with ...

The upcoming changes to the U.S. patent law, and particularly the transition from a first-to-invent to a first-to-file system on March 16, 2013, brings with it some changes that bioscience companies ...

“Provisional patent applications are widely touted as the go-to thing for startup companies or independent inventors, but they are always the wrong thing to do,” says Russ Krajec, CEO of BlueIron, a ...

I am a big fan of inventors using provisional applications as a first step toward obtaining a utility patent. Indeed, provisional patent applications provide many benefits. Provisional applications ...

As mentioned in past columns, one indicia of the likelihood of success of your venture is demonstrably strong intellectual property protection. You are much more likely to interest an investor if you ...

That's shortsighted, since patent protection is useful in our litigious society. For start-ups, filing for patents may be a luxury when the issue at hand is survival. But there is a way around the ...

There is a great misunderstanding among many inventors and entrepreneurs regarding what many simply refer to as a “provisional patent.” The first thing that needs to be said is that there is no such ...

I think inventors should try writing their own provisional patent applications, even if they end up hiring a patent attorney to write the final version. Why? Because committing your thoughts to paper ...

Provisional patent applications became available on June 8, 1995 in response to the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (the GATT treaty) whereby applicants in the United States are able to ...

Provisional patent applications offer a relatively inexpensive way for applicants to secure an early filing date for potentially patentable subject matter. They also provide a one-year window during ...

A well-intentioned decision to reduce expenses can result in a poorly written provisional patent application that actually destroys an institution’s future patent rights in an important technology. In ...