Can You Add Another Person to Your Patent Application?

“If I filed for a provisional patent as the sole inventor, is it possible to add another inventor when filing for the nonprovisional patent if he makes a contribution to the invention?”

You may add additional inventors to your non-provisional application. The non-provisional must have at least one inventor in common with the provisional patent application.

It is important to understand, however, that the inventors listed must correspond to the subject matter stated in the patent claims, not the patent specification. An inventor is someone who contributed to the conception of a patent claim. Patent claims are not required provisional patent application, but they are required in the non-provisional… so you must carefully assess who may or may not be listed as an inventor in the non-provisional patent application.

In addition, if you are adding an inventor because the inventor contributed additional subject matter after the provisional patent filing – you must be careful. Adding new subject matter in the patent claims that was not covered in the provisional may cause the patent examiner to decline your priority claim to the provisional application. This is because the provisional patent application must at least anticipate the subject matter claimed in the non-provisional application.

As such, you must file a non-provisional patent application with the same subject matter as the provisional and then, you must file a continuation-in-part application to cover the new subject matter not covered by the provisional. This will enable you to preserve your priority claim to the provisional – else, you risk losing your claim!

I would strongly advise that you retain a licensed attorney for the non-provisional filing. I have not met an inventor who has obtained enforceable and defensible patent protection without the support of a licensed patent attorney. There is a high risk of abandoning your patent rights to the public domain.

If you are interested in more detail related to your situation it is best to speak with an attorney.