Protection and rights are often thrown around together but not always as synonymous
Yang 18, patent attorney and helps inventors and mid-sized businesses secure intellectual property rights for their inventions. He publishes patent-related articles at www.ocpatentlawyer.com. He is the author of Navigating the Patent System (2017) and is a partner at Klein, O'Neill & Singh LLP. (James, December 2018, “FEATURE: PROVISIONAL PATENT APPLICATION: NOT A CHEAP ALTERNATIVE TO A NONPROVISIONAL PATENT APPLICATION”, 60 Orange County Lawyer 42, 42. Lexis accessed online via KU libraries)
By patent protection, I refer to patent-pendency type patent protection, and not enforceable patent rights. Patent-pendency type patent protection refers to the protection an inventor receives by merely filing a patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The filing date of the patent application establishes a date of invention or priority date as to the information included in the patent application. The pending patent application has superior rights to a later filed patent application by another person. In contrast, enforceable patent rights only accrue when the patent application matures into a granted patent.