This Handbook provides an overview of federal patent and trademark law. Information discussed includes types of patents and trademarks, duration of registration, requirements for obtaining, a guide to the application process, protecting your patent or trademark, and much more in 18 pages of materials.
Filed application for patent filed in the United States may claim the benefit of, or priority to, a prior application filed in the United States. An application for patent filed in the United States may be entitled to the benefit of the filing date of a prior application filed in a foreign country.A priority claim must be made within 4 months of the filing of the application or 16 months from the filing date of the prior application, whichever is later. Each claim is entitled to a priority date, which could be the date of filing of the priority application or the date the complete patent application was filed. What is a patent priority date? Priority date refers to the earliest filing date in a family of patent applications. A trademark priority date is the earliest a trademark can be registered with the US Trademark Office (USPTO).