Patent applications are generally published 18 months after the earliest priority date of the application.

It also allows you to sign-up for updates when your priority date becomes current.

The filing date is not necessarily the priority date, which can be up to one year earlier.

For instance, it is possible to enter the European regional phase at 31 months from the earliest priority date.

The priority date of those rights remains the date when the reservation was created.

If your priority date is within current dates for adjudication, my office can make a status inquiry.

From the priority date, the patentee normally has up to 12 months to apply for patents in other countries.

Such later applications will refer back to that original priority date.

In addition to inventor's notebook, several additional kinds of evidence can be used to establish an earlier priority date.

Kokai are published eighteen months after the earliest priority date.