A provisional patent application is a lower-cost, informal US filing that secures a priority date and 12 months of “patent pending” status without starting formal examination. It must be followed within that 12-month window by a non-provisional application or, very commonly, a PCT application, which acts as the effective “non-provisional” while keeping the choice of countries (including the US) open for up to 30 months from the priority date. Europe has no direct equivalent; a first national or EPO filing plays the same priority-setting role, with the same 12-month window under the Paris Convention.
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