Q: Does the following mean the priority date is Aug 9, 2014? Anyway to get a copy of the provisional?
"This application is a continuation-in-part and claims benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/821,555, filed Aug. 7, 2015, which is a non-provisional and claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/035,412, filed Aug. 9, 2014, the specification(s) of which is/are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference."
Would this mean anything in the public domain prior to Aug 9, 2013 would invalidate the novelty requirement?
A:
Yes, your understanding is correct. Breaking this down:
- The application claims priority and benefit back to a provisional application filed on August 9, 2014.
- This establishes August 9, 2014 as the effective priority date for assessing patentability, including the novelty requirements.
- Anything disclosed in the public domain (e.g. published documents, products, uses) before August 9, 2014 could be considered invalidating prior art against this patent application.
As for getting a copy of the provisional application, unfortunately provisional applications do not publish. They were never examined or published by the USPTO.
However, you can try requesting a copy directly from the inventor/assignee if needed. There is no guarantee they would provide it, but it's possible if necessary for your analysis.
In summary – you have correctly identified August 9, 2014 as the critical priority cut-off date based on the cited relationship to the earlier provisional filing.
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