A provisional application for patent does nothing but reserve a filing date; they never mature into an issued patent, and they expire one year after filing.

These applications are used (a) by invention promotion firms for everyone (without telling them that the application expires and how to make use of the filing date) (b) in a situation where the invention was disclosed to the public and the year in which the inventor has after that event to file an application has nearly expired; or (c) where an entity wishes to do some market research before spending the bucks to file a non-provisional application.

To answer your question in a nutshell, yes and no. If you file a provisional application, you will need to take advantage of the filing date within one year of the filing date of the provisional (by that time, very, very few inventions have become profitable) or lose the filing date, which would make the whole provisional exercise futile.

I'll be happy to discuss this matter with you if you wish; feel free to call my office at 518-371-4599 for a no-fee half-hour consultation. It doesn't matter where your patent lawyer is located, by the way; the patent bar is federal and most of us have clients in far-flung places.

Nancy Delain

https://oedci.uspto.gov/OEDCI/details.do?regisNum=56337

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