Adding Claims After Filing Provisional

[listenup77]

California. I filed my provisional application without the claims. Does the USPTO allow one to send the claims that can be attached to the filed provisional, without filing a second provisional and paying the fee?

 

[listenup77]

Second part to my question. As advise earlier, if I put claims in my provisional application and when it comes to my non-provisional application, can I exclude claims made in the provisional application. Or am I required to keep the same claims when filing the non-provisional appl? I know if I add claims, the new claims will not benefit from the early filing date, but if I add claims in my provisional, am I limited to those only? B/C if I can add claims in the non-provisional, then I might as well just broadly add the major/important claims in the provisional and later add new claims in the non-provisional as I develope my idea.

 

[divgradcurl]

California. I filed my provisional application without the claims. Does the USPTO allow one to send the claims that can be attached to the filed provisional, without filing a second provisional and paying the fee?

No. You cannot amend a provisional application.

 

[divgradcurl]

Second part to my question. As advise earlier, if I put claims in my provisional application and when it comes to my non-provisional application, can I exclude claims made in the provisional application.

Yes.

I know if I add claims, the new claims will not benefit from the early filing date, but if I add claims in my provisional, am I limited to those only? B/C if I can add claims in the non-provisional, then I might as well just broadly add the major/important claims in the provisional and later add new claims in the non-provisional as I develope my idea.

Claims have nothing to do with the priority date. It's very common to file a provisional with only a single, broad claim (so that it's fully compatible with foreign requirements), and then when the nonprovisional is filed (or when the provisional is converted into a nonprovisional) then the full claim set is put into place. As long as the claims are fully disclosed in the specification in the provisional, there is no issue as to the priority date for the claims.

The priority date simply refers to the disclosure of the invention itself, not the claims. If the invention is fully disclosed in the provisional application, then the entire invention is entitled to the priority date, regardless of whether you filed one (or no) claims with the provisional.