Provisional vs. Non-Provisional Applications

Hello I’m Tim Maier. I would like to speak to you for a minute or two today about the different tests for inventorships between provisional applications and non-provisional applications

To test for inventorship and for provisional application is just some contribution each inventor or co-inventor has an equal undivided 100% interest in that provisional application. On the other hand, if you convert your provisional into a non-provisional the test for inventorship is contribution to at least one claim.

For example, if you have 20 claims and inventor A contributes to 19 of them and Inventor B contributes just to 1 minor facet to it depending claim. Inventor B is still co-inventor and has an interest in that patent. So these are some common issues between provisional and non-provisional patents regarding inventor-ship that can come up.

Furthermore, these are important things to know especially when you’re signing ownership from an inventor to an entity. If there’s some sort inventorship dispute between co inventor A and co inventor B or the illegal assignee the corporation that owns it. It’s important to know these distinctions and know what constitutes inventor-ship so that you can hire an attorney to write the right petitions to make sure your rights are preserved.

Thanks for listening. I’m Tim Maier.