Patent Pending/Publication of Patent Application:An inventor may place the words ‘Patent Pending’ on an invention after a patent application has been filed. These words (with actual notification) only take on legal effect, known as provisional rights, after the patent application has published which is generally 18 months after the Non-Provisional Patent Application is filed. Provisional Patent Applications are not examined, do not publish and, ironically, have no provisional rights.

An applicant can submit a request for non-publication. When granted this request will prevent the application from publishing at the 18 month mark and the application will not publish until issuance. Provisional patent applications do not publish. If inventor wants to make a foreign filing, they will have to rescind the non-publication request.