There are clear advantages to filing a patent application as soon as one is capable of doing so. For instance, the U.S. has a first to invent patent system. What this means is that the applicant entitled to a patent is the first to conceive of the subject matter of a patent application. Absent any evidence to the contrary, the Patent Office presumes that the date of the invention is the filing date of the application. Therefore, the patent application may be rejected over an earlier filed patent, even if the applicant invented before the earlier filed patent. Applicants can submit evidence of an earlier date of conception, but this procedure is not available all of the time and doing so adds to the complexity and consequently the cost of the patent. Similarly, most countries have a statutory bar that prevents applicants from getting a patent if the invention is disclosed publicly before the filing of the application. The U.S. and Canada are the only two countries that I am aware of that give applicants a twelve month grace period to file their application.
The practical reality, however, is that not every applicant can file their patent application immediately. That being said, there are ways for an applicant to limit the risks associated with waiting. The first and least expensive way is not to disclose an invention to anyone unless the receiving party is bound by a confidentiality agreement. The confidentiality agreement, however, will not prevent loss of rights if the receiving party discloses the invention to someone that is not bound by the agreement. The next least expensive way to limit the risk of waiting is to take advantage of provisional patent applications. Provisional applications have a relatively inexpensive filing fee, they are not examined, and there are few formalities, which makes them the most appropriate for pro se applicants to file on their own. Of course, applicants should always maintain a notebook record of their invention in the event that it is necessary to prove an earlier date of invention.
