January 12, 2010
What type of patent application is right for me?
Generally speaking, a patent is a grant, by the government, for a fixed period of time, of the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, or offering for sale an invention as defined in the claims of a patent. (For more information, check our our Overview of U.S. Patent Protection.) Of course, the first step in the patent process is filing a patent application. There are several different types of patent applications that can be filed by an inventor. What follows is a brief outline of the types of patent applications that can be applied for, as well as the differences between them all. The patent applications that will be discussed below are Provisional Patent Applications, Utility Patent Applications (sometimes called Nonprovisional Patent Applications), Design Patent Applications, and Plant Patent Applications.
