Bruce E. Burdick’s Guides

Risk 2: Risk of inadequate disclosure The priority which a PUPA gets is only as good as to what it discloses, since anything not disclosed is not filed and thus gets no priority. In the rush to prepare and file quickly it is easy to prepare a skimpy disclosure that will not suppo...

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Risk 1: Risk of missing a deadline A PUPA expires one year from the time it is filed. To maintain protection a non-provisional or "regular" patent application must be filed prior to such expiration. The date is easy to forget and if you do you lose your priority. You can refile b...

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Advantage 7: Secrecy is maintained but you get "patent pending" status To me this is the biggest advantage for the small inventor. You get your cake (secrecy) but get to eat it (legally have disclosed it), too. PUPAs are held in confidence by the USPTO and not published, so no on...

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Advantage 6: You can use the "2-yr provisional" pilot program To help underfunded small entities, the USPTO has a pilot program where a non-provisional patent application can be filed, based on an earlier PUPA, and only the basic filing fee (currently $95) paid and delay other fe...

Advantage 5: Easier to do it yourself There are a number of low cost software programs and low cost providers that purport to offer low cost PUPA preparation and filing. As in most things, you will usually get what you pay for so if you pay next to nothing that is the quality of ...

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Advantage 4: Simplicity A disclosure, a special "Provisional Application for Patent Cover Sheet", a fee, and an electronic filing will get a date. The disclosure is not examined except as to form, so even a really skimpy disclosure gets a date. This carries with it a risk of inad...

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Advantage 2: Quicker Filing A PUPA can be filed quickly since it only needs a disclosure and claims can be omitted or simplified. PUPAs are not examined, so claims are not required. There are situations where they are desirable and they help in drafting the disclosure, but in a r...

Advantage 1: You can extend the term of the patent for up to a year The provisional utility patent application (PUPA) provides priority against prior art or later applicants but yet does not count against the patent term 35 USC 154(a)(3) This makes it possible to have a patent te...

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There are 7 main advantages (extending patent term, quicker filing, lower cost, simplicity, easier to do-it-yourself, the 2-yr PUPA pilot program ) and 3 main disadvantages (risk of missing a deadline, risk of inadequate disclosure, tendency to do-it-yourself.) We will discuss each of them:

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Know Your Options, there are many kinds of protections Patents protect inventions that are new, useful and unobvious. The owner of a patent has a right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale or importing the claimed invention, upon issuance of the pate...

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