Enter the day you filed your US provisional. See the exact 12-month deadline for your non-provisional, the parallel deadline to file abroad, and how much time you have left.
You have exactly 12 months from your US provisional filing date to file the non-provisional (35 U.S.C. § 119(e)). It is the 12-month anniversary, not a 365-day count, and it moves to the next business day if it lands on a weekend or a federal holiday. The foreign and PCT deadline runs on the same 12 months.
You have exactly 12 months from your provisional’s filing date to file a non-provisional (utility) application claiming its benefit. This is statutory, under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e), and the USPTO cannot grant the routine “buy more time” extension that other deadlines allow. Miss it and the provisional’s early filing date, your priority, is gone.
Filing the provisional also starts a separate 12-month clock under the Paris Convention for filing abroad, or a PCT application, while still claiming your provisional’s date. It falls on the same calendar day as the US deadline, but it is a different legal right. Missing one does not waive the other, and restoring a late foreign claim is not guaranteed the way the US restoration is.
One narrow path remains, and it is not a plan. Within about two months of the deadline you can petition to restore the benefit under 37 CFR 1.78(b), with a fee and a statement that the delay was unintentional. It can be refused, and it is far more expensive and uncertain than simply filing on time. Treat the 12-month date as hard.
When the 12-month anniversary lands on a Saturday, Sunday, or a federal holiday in Washington, DC, the deadline rolls forward to the next business day under 37 CFR 1.7. That is why your real deadline can be a day or two later than the plain anniversary, and this calculator applies that roll for you.
A provisional is never examined and cannot issue as a patent. It holds your filing date for 12 months and does one job: give you a year to file the non-provisional that the USPTO actually examines. If that year passes without a non-provisional, the provisional is simply abandoned.
Before you spend on a filing, EntreDash helps you validate the market, search the prior art, and see whether it is worth filing at all.
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