Almost a year to the day that we filed the provisional patent application for my new invention, we just filed the non-provisional application. The difference is that this one is for the actual patent, as opposed to just a filing date. This should take anywhere from 18 to 24 months to complete. Kind of annoying it takes that long, but we don’t have much choice. Unless our invention is something that is related to the environment, we are out of luck. Just like the trademark process, the patent application also has to go through a “publishing” phase. This phase is where the public can see the application, and if they find the invention infringes on something they have done, contest it etc.