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File Early: How Provisional Patent Applications Increase Protection

dan-beckerBy Daniel Becker

Many applicants make the mistake of waiting until they have an ideal embodiment reduced to a high degree of precision before drafting a patent application. While skillful application drafting is important to the value of the patent, it is a mistake to presume that one should wait to file until the invention is crafted to a state of perfection.

The value to the public of a granted patent is a fulsome disclosure that advances the state of the art. Patent protection effected by the application extends to the degree that the applicant’s claims are adequately supported by that disclosure. The requirement that the disclosure must be at least as much as is claimed seems logical with respect to the benefit of the patent to the public. However, for the applicant, it creates an inverse relationship between depth of disclosure and breadth of protection.

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