Provisional Specification of Application :

When the applicant finds that his invention has reached a stage wherein it can be disclosed on paper, but has not attained the final stage, he may prepare a disclosure of the invention in the form of a written description and submit it to Patent Office as a provisional specification which describes the invention.

A provisional specification secures a priority date for the application over any other application which is likely to be filed in respect of the same invention being developed concurrently.

Immediately on receiving the Provisional Specification the Patent Office accords a filing date and application number to the Application.

Section 9 stipulates that an application for a patent accompanying a provisional specification, a complete specification shall be filed within twelve months from the date of filing of the application, and if the complete specification is not so filed, the application shall be deemed to be abandoned.

If two provisional specifications filed by an applicant are cognate or if one is a modification of the other, the applicant may file one complete specification covering both the provisional applications. Such a complete specification shall have to be filed within twelve months from the date of filing of the first provisional application. In such cases, date of filing of application is the date of filing of the earliest provisional specification and shall bear the number of that application.

An applicant may, within twelve months from the filing of a complete specification (not being a convention application or a PCT National Phase Application), convert the same into a provisional specification. Consequently, the applicant has to file a complete specification within twelve months from the date of first filing.

A provisional specification (i.e. the one filed directly or the one converted from a complete specification) may be postdated to the date of filing of the complete specification.