Provisional Patent in Argentina

Abstract

The provisional patent is a figure present in some national patent laws. Its application allows you to establish a priority over the invention it houses, starting a limited period within which the inventor can apply for a non-provisional patent invoking that priority date. Thus, this instrument is appropriate to protect inventions that have not fully completed their R&D stage, since it extends the term to determine the effective value of the invention, while early establishing its priority before the state of the art. The management of this instrument is simpler and cheaper than that of an ordinary patent, increasing its attractiveness for inventors unfamiliar with the patent system and/or with limited budgets for managing their intellectual property.

The present work gives an account of the characteristics of this patent, of its observance of supranational letters in the matter and of the own forms that its presence adopts in the legislations of some countries. On the other hand, its levels of adoption by users and its impact on a subsequent ordinary patent application in terms of national and international priority management are analysed. Likewise, this work studies the forms of articulation that this institute can present with the prior disclosure and with the duration of the protection of the invention, both effective and in expectation.

Formerly present in Argentine legislation, the reasons for its elimination are reviewed and its reincorporation is postulated, with modifications, considering its usefulness for the protection of inventions of public R&D&i systems and local start-ups and SMEs, with little participation in the patent system. Likewise, the contribution that the presence of this institute would have on the architecture of patent law by providing a more balanced treatment to National Treatment is analysed.