The purpose of this guide is to provide you with basic information about filing a utility patent application with the USPTO. A provisional application is an application that is filed with the US Patent Office and designated as a provisional application.A priority date patent establishes the priority date as the earliest date an application may claim precedence. The priority date determines whether another patent filing or publicly available document qualifies as prior art against one's patent application. Yes, you can claim priority to any provisional that was filed within one year of the filing date of the nonprovisional application. The priority date is the date you filed the first application. Priority date refers to the earliest filing date in a family of patent applications.