Provisional patents for AI and semiconductor founders

What a provisional is

A United States provisional application is a filing that establishes a priority date for whatever it describes, without claims, without examination and without becoming a patent. Within twelve months the applicant must file a non-provisional application (or a PCT application) that claims priority to it; otherwise the date is lost. It is cheap to file and that is its danger: a provisional that describes an idea in a few paragraphs protects a few paragraphs.

Why the description matters more than the form

The later full application can only claim what the provisional supports. For an AI system, that means the architecture, the training method, the data pipeline and the specific technical effect have to be described in enough detail that a person skilled in the field could reproduce them. For a semiconductor invention, the circuit, the process steps and the parameters. A provisional written from a pitch deck fails this test; a provisional written from the engineering design document passes it. LegalMatrix drafts provisionals with draft claims attached, so the full application is a conversion rather than a rewrite.

Publish, pitch, ship: the novelty clock

In most of the world, a public disclosure before filing destroys novelty immediately. The United States gives a one-year grace period for the inventor's own disclosures; Japan has a limited exception that must be invoked at filing; Taiwan and Singapore have grace periods with conditions. The safe rule for a company that wants protection outside the United States is to file before the conference talk, the demo day and the product launch, and a provisional is the fastest way to do that.

First filing at home: a trap for non-US applicants

Several countries require residents to file first at home, or obtain a foreign-filing licence, for inventions made there; the rules exist for national-security review and the penalties include invalidity. The United States has such a rule for inventions made in the United States; so do others. For a team in Taiwan or Japan, the first filing may need to be at TIPO or the JPO, with the US provisional following under the Paris Convention. The patentability assessment covers this before anything is filed.

The twelve-month plan

Month 0: provisional filed. Months 1 to 9: develop, test, raise, refine. Month 9: decide the jurisdictions. Month 11: full application or PCT drafted. Month 12: filed. A PCT application keeps the option to file in most countries open until 30 or 31 months from the priority date, which is why companies that do not yet know their markets choose it. Each stage is quoted before you commit.

Costs to expect

A provisional drafted properly costs a few thousand dollars; the full application several times that; prosecution through grant, with office actions and fees, several times that again over three to five years. Foreign filings add translation and local agents' fees per country. The number that matters is the total over the family's life, and it should be set against what the patent is for: a licence, a defensive position, an asset for investors or a barrier to a competitor. The assessment makes that case before the first filing.