Why is the priority date of a patent application important?
When a patent application is examined it is checked to see if the invention that is being claimed is new and involves an inventive step when compared to the prior art base. The prior art base is basically information that was in the public domain, anywhere in the world and in any language, up to the date that the patent application was filed. So, the later the patent applications priority date, the larger the prior art base will be and the greater the risk that the invention will have already found its way into that prior art base. This is why it can be risky to unduly delay filing a patent application for an invention.
