what are the advantages of applying for a Provisional patent application than a non-provisional patent appli.?

Answer 1

A provisional application allows for filing without a formal patent claim, oath or declaration, or any information disclosure (prior art) statement. The beauty of the provisional is that it locks in your priority date. In other words, your filing date for any later filed non-provisional ("regular") application will be that of the provisional. Additionally, filing a provisional patent allows the term "Patent Pending" to be applied, which can have significant marketing advantages. Furthermore, the filing of a provisional application is considered to be a patent application, which probably seems obvious, but which is exceptionally important under the patent laws of the United States. This is critical because in the US you can become prevented from filing a patent application if certain things have happened more than 12 months prior to the filing of a patent application. For example, if you sell a product for more than 12 months prior to filing an application you lose the right to obtain a patent. If, however, you have filed a provisional application less than 12 months after you start selling then you are fine. So, the moral of the story is that provisionals not only lock in your application date, but they also stop the running of any legal time bars (so-called statutory bars) which could otherwise prevent you from obtaining a patent.

A provisional application for patent lasts only 12 months from the date the provisional application is filed. The 12-month pendency period cannot be extended. Therefore, an applicant who files a provisional application must file a corresponding non-provisional application for patent (i.e., "regular patent application") during the 12-month pendency period of the provisional application in order to benefit from the earlier filing of the provisional application.

By filing a provisional application first, and then filing a corresponding non-provisional application that references the provisional application within the 12-month provisional application pendency period, a patent term endpoint may be extended by as much as 12 months. This is because the patent term will expire 20 years from the filing date of the non-provisional (i.e., "regular") application. The importance of this is that you can lock in your priority date with the provisional, apply "Patent Pending", and wait 12 months before you file the non-provisional application. The effect is that you have locked in your priority date for 12 months without the patent exclusivity term beginning to run.

In short, if you file a provisional application and you want to move forward to obtain a patent you will still need to file a non-provisional application, so many will just skip the provisional application. Nevertheless, filing a provisional application is quicker, cheaper and easier. It also gives you 12 months to try and exploit the invention before you have to determine whether you need to go through the cost and time investment of filing a non-provisional application.

Answer 2

Yes. The inventor just lost the priority date of the provisional. The priority date would now be the filing date of the non-provisional application. Any intervening art (art filed or published in the interim time) would be considered against the non-provisional.