Just like every other area of law, patent law is full of terms that means very little in relation to our normal language, and it can be quite difficult to find alternative terms to describe these concepts without long, drawn-out explanations of the law it describes. One of those terms is the “priority date“. It is a critical term, in every day usage, in the world of a patent attorney, but what is a priority date? In this blog, I will try and explain.
Filing your first patent application
In general, when you want to patent your invention, the first step is to file a patent application in your own country, so in our case, the UK. This involves drafting a patent specification (which is a complete description of your invention and a set of legal statements called claims that define what we want to stop others from doing), and filing the patent specification at the UK Patent Office. In response, we receive an application number and a filing date (i.e. the date on which that initial application is filed).
That filing date is also called the “priority date”. In other words, the date of filing the earliest patent application. The reason it is called the priority date is because that first patent application effectively acts to “plant your flag” and date stamp the details of the invention, as you have described them in the patent specification.
What does the priority date do?
So, now you have your priority date, what does it mean to you? Well, it starts a 12-month “clock” running and, by the end of 12 months from the priority date, falls the deadline for:
- updating the patent specification with any technical changes or additions to the invention and re-filing the UK patent application; and
- filing any corresponding patent applications overseas.
And the legal effect of meeting this 12-month deadline is that you can “keep” your priority date for the new UK application (if you need to file one) and any overseas applications, which means that any intervening disclosure of the invention will not count against those later applications.
What does that mean in practice?
In practice, of course, this means that you can file your initial UK patent application and get your priority date, launch the product immediately after, and file any corresponding overseas applications 12 months later. Not only does that mean that you would (hopefully) have a revenue stream from your product, but would also have started to get an idea of which markets might be the most important to your business and, therefore, which countries you might want to file applications in by the end of 12 months from the priority date.
Or, you could file your initial patent application to get your priority date, launch a crowd funding campaign to fund further development of the product, and then update the patent specification with further developments, and re-file the application in the UK and/or file any corresponding overseas applications 12 months from the priority date.
It is essential to note here that any developments that occur during that 12-month period from the priority date must not be disclosed to anyone, except in confidence, unless or until the UK patent application has been re-filed because the priority date only covers the invention as it was described in the original patent specification.
Need Help?
We hope you have found this summary useful. If you need help to work out when to file your initial patent application, or if you have any other IP questions, we are happy to offer a confidential initial consultation, which is free of charge and obligation. Please book your free initial consultation by clicking the link below:
https://calendly.com/strachan-ip-a-fresh-view-of-intellectual-property/30min
or by calling 07714 797135 or emailing vicki.strachan@strachanip.co.uk
or you can contact us through our website: https://strachanip.co.uk/contact/
