There are endless categories for patents. Is it really that dificult to choose the proper one. I've heard many stories about the patents being held up forever because inventors have chosen a mistaken category. Any truth to this? Help!
Inventors do not choose which classification code(or codes) will be used. The examiner does that. In the "specification" the inventor describes the general field of invention or prior art called "Field of Invention". Any information or questions are easily found at the USPTO website.
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Analogies are like something else.
The Provisional Application for Patent is only available as an application filed in the U.S. It is something that the applicant can choose to do. The choice is to file a provisional application, or a utility application. The provisional application does not get examined. It is pending for one year, and then it expires. Before the end of the one year, a utility patent application must be filed, which claims "priority" to the provisional application - i.e. the utility application gets the benefit of the filing date of the provisional, as if the utility application itself were filed on that date.
The provisional application is less expensive to file - informal drawings and a lower filing fee. (However, a complete "enabling disclosure" of the invention including "best mode" must still be provided in the application. Do NOT file a sloppy incomplete description.) It is a less expensive way of establishing a filing date, while perhaps then continuing to go about other business activities - more R&D, manufacturing setup, marketing, investment capital, etc. Then the larger investment in the utility application can be made if the business looks promising.
One other thing, Palinurus, the Office of Initial Patent Examination (OIPE) makes the first call as to the classification, and the Technology Center/Art Unit to send the application to. An Examiner can then request that the application be reassigned to a different examiner/reclassified if it appears that an error has been made.
I should also point out that the other types of patents in the U.S. are the design patent and the plant patent. Plant patents (not very common) protect "asexually propagated plants reproduced by means other than from seeds" e.g. rootings, cuttings, budding, grafting, and genetic manipulation. Design patents protect the ornamental appearance of an object. And the utility patent I cited earlier protects the way something works. Statutory classes of invention for utility patents are compositions of matter,articles, apparatus, and methods (of doing something). A provisional application for patent can only be used to support a subsequent utility patent, not design or plant patents.
categories for provisional patent
Re: categories for provisional patent
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