{"id":8451,"date":"2014-08-07T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-07T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/creator\/?p=8451"},"modified":"2020-03-30T19:00:22","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T23:00:22","slug":"startup-needs-know-filing-patent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/startup-needs-know-filing-patent","title":{"rendered":"What your startup needs to know about filing a patent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b><\/b><em><b>Should I file a provisional or utility patent?<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n<p>In order to be granted a patent, you must file a \u201cutility\u201d patent application.\u00a0 That filing must contain enough detail to show the people in your field what your invention is and how it works.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have all of those details ready for filing or you are on a budget, you can file a \u201cprovisional patent\u201d application instead, which doesn\u2019t need to have all of the details required in a utility application.\u00a0 Filing a provisional patent application allows you to establish a filing date for less money, and often more quickly, than a utility application.\u00a0 However, a provisional application will not be examined by the Patent Office, and, thus, cannot mature into a granted patent.\u00a0 If you filed a provisional patent application and want to obtain a granted patent application, you must file a related \u201cutility\u201d patent application within one year of the filing date of the provisional application.\u00a0 Further, if you wish to obtain patent protection in foreign countries, you must also file those applications within one year of your provisional filing date.<\/p>\n<p>Provisional applications help you make the most of a limited budget early in the life of your company.\u00a0 The money saved can be invested in exploring the invention\u2019s commercial potential, continuing R&amp;D, and\/or finding investors.\u00a0 Meanwhile, you can use the phrase \u201cPatent Pending\u201d in connection with the invention to put the world on notice and deter copycats.\u00a0 Also, if your invention is one that is likely to be more profitable near the end of the patent\u2019s life as opposed to early in its life (as is sometimes the case for medical devices and pharmaceuticals), a provisional application gives you the advantage of the early filing date without counting against the 20-year life of the patent.<\/p>\n<p>Although a provisional application avoids many of the filing formalities required of a utility application, don\u2019t cut corners on the material you put into the provisional application.\u00a0 The provisional application must enable others to make and use the invention, and you must disclose enough detail to show others what you invented.\u00a0 You will only get an early filing date for claims that are supported by the disclosure in the provisional, so it is important to be as complete as possible and to consider what will ultimately be claimed in the utility application when drafting the provisional application.\u00a0 Your patent attorney should work closely with you to help put high quality material into a provisional application so you get the most value out of your early filing date.<\/p>\n<p><em>Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Photos within are not of clients or firm personnel.<\/em>\u00a0<i>\u00a9 2014 Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Should I file a provisional or utility patent? In order to be granted a patent, you must file a \u201cutility\u201d patent application.\u00a0 That filing must contain enough detail to show the people in your field what your invention is and how it works.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have all of those details ready for filing or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":915,"featured_media":8455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43902],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.4 (Yoast SEO v25.3.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What your startup needs to know about filing a patent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/startup-needs-know-filing-patent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What your startup needs to know about filing a patent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/startup-needs-know-filing-patent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ideas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-07T16:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-03-30T23:00:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/08\/20140425-Stock-Photos-12-1.jpg?resize=1440,810\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"810\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"WilmerHale Legal Tip of the Week\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"WilmerHale Legal Tip of the Week\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/startup-needs-know-filing-patent#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/startup-needs-know-filing-patent\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"WilmerHale Legal Tip of the Week\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/person\/b6d35526a3c99d7f8282baa334cfb7d9\"},\"headline\":\"What your startup needs to know about filing a patent\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-07T16:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-30T23:00:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/startup-needs-know-filing-patent\"},\"wordCount\":470,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/startup-needs-know-filing-patent#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/08\/20140425-Stock-Photos-12-1.jpg?fit=4000%2C2667\",\"articleSection\":[\"Professional Development\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/startup-needs-know-filing-patent\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/startup-needs-know-filing-patent\",\"name\":\"What your startup needs to know about filing a patent\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/startup-needs-know-filing-patent#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/startup-needs-know-filing-patent#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/08\/20140425-Stock-Photos-12-1.jpg?fit=4000%2C2667\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-07T16:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-30T23:00:22+00:00\",\"description\":\"Should I file a provisional or utility patent? 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