We know that we can create a monopoly in the market for our invention or any patentable product by way filing for patent registration.
In India, the ordinary patent application may be filed in two ways, either as a provisional patent application or as complete specifications.
Both the applications helps to secure your patent right from the date you file for an application. But there exists a difference between the concept of provisional patent application and complete specifications.
Let us focus today on understanding what exactly provisional patent applications means and what are its implications?
Every day everyone around you is developing something or the other and wants to materialize their invention, in race of filing for a patent, the one who files first often has good chances of winning. As in India, the date of your patent filing measures the success for your grant, let us understand this!
The day you file for an ordinary application, be it provisional or complete you get your application date which is generally known as Priority date. As the term itself is priority date, it means that your invention disclosed will be analyzed, with reference to related and already existing knowledge in your patent application field only with things that exists before the date you have filed for your patent.
So, this priority date becomes important point to decide the novelty, non-obviousness and of-course your chance of securing patent. The soon file the patent, the likelihood of success will increase.
Now, let us proceed to understand the concept of provisional patent application, A provisional patent application is an application where the applicant or the inventor gives a broad idea around and about the invention.
In provisional patent application it is not required to disclose every minute detail of the proposed invention unlike complete specification, which is required to be supported with detailed description along with the claims.
And provisional application is wonderful concept that allows to test water around your invention be its market, be its intended improvements or its applicability.
Once you have filed a provisional patent application you need to file the complete specifications that is complete description along with claims within 12 months time period calculated from the date of filing of the provisional specification.
Even though it seems that provisional specifications must be easy to draft in comparison to the complete specifications, but it requires really clever drafting so that you do not limit the scope of your impugned patent in any manner.
This drafting becomes more critical when you are dealing with biotechnology or pharmaceutical compositions.
As the general rule states that the ambit of complete specification must be within the boundaries of the provisional specifications.
