Q: if i had a provisional patent a few years back. can you work on its previous search and resubmit with adjustments?
A:
This is a very common question.
You filed a provisional patent application, but you did not file a regular utility application like you were supposed to in order to get patent protection. Your provisional patent application has thus lapsed.
Yes, you can file another patent application to the same, similar, or improved invention as in your provisional patent application. The good news is that your provisional application is not going to be held against you, neither in the US nor anywhere else. The bad news is that you won't be able to claim the priority date to the provisional application. It is as if that application has never been filed.
Bernard Samuel Klosowski and Kathryn Perales agree with this answer
A:
If the original provisional patent application (PPA) expired without being published (e.g., it was never used as a basis for a formal utility patent application), then the PPA might be "recycled" into a new PPA to include improvements or changes to the invention since the first PPA.
The new PPA could be drafted with an eye on any original search, but the more time that has passed since the original PPA, the greater amount of prior art that may have arisen. A second or supplementary search would probably be advisable since the claims of a utility patent application relying on the subsequent PPA would be affected by relevant prior art.
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