What happens if you don’t file a nonprovisional application within 12 months of a provisional?

What happens if you don’t file a nonprovisional application within 12 months of a provisional?

If you don’t file a nonprovisional application within 12 months of filing a provisional application, you lose the ability to claim the benefit of the provisional application’s filing date. The MPEP 201.04 states:

“A provisional application automatically becomes abandoned 12 months after its filing date and cannot claim the benefit of any other application.”

This means that after 12 months, the provisional application expires, and you can no longer use it as a basis for priority in a nonprovisional application. If you still want to pursue patent protection for your invention, you would need to file a new application, but you may have lost your priority date and any intervening prior art could potentially be used against your application.

For more information on nonprovisional application, visit: nonprovisional application.

For more information on provisional application, visit: provisional application.