[zaroth]

To be sure, you submit the provisional patent application, and never file the utility. It's only $260 to file. After 1 year the provisional dies and you have a permanent record of the prior art.

In this case there is a provisional patent from 2014, and this application follows from that provisional.

[monochromatic]

> After 1 year the provisional dies and you have a permanent record of the prior art.

It's a permanent record, but it's not published. This is not a great plan.

[zaroth]

I've been reading more about this. Public disclosure vs. provisional.

In the US you get a year after public disclosure to file even a provisional. But not so if you want non-US patents. So you are closing some doors but keeping others open with public disclosure. Also, you are starting a 1 year clock.

A provisional is private; it does not count as public disclosure. A provisional is nothing more than a priority date, assuming what you have disclosed in the provisional itself is sufficient, and novel. You can even refile the same provisional every year as long as you believe the subject mater is still novel, but you get a new filing/priority date each time.

As for preventing a 3rd party from patenting the subject matter, either one is sufficient. However, if you publically disclose, only then you also get protection from a 3rd party who builds on your work. So in that case public disclosure is better than the 'secret' provisional.

Better yet, just timestamp the document in the blockchain.