**This article is an update of the IPconnect blog article dated October 14th, 2010 and supersedes that article.**

You have a provisional application that was filed on June 15, 2012 and your client wants to file both a U.S. utility and a PCT application claiming priority to the provisional.    June 15, 2013 is a Saturday, so you think that you can file both applications on Monday, June 17, 2013 because of the Sat/Sun/Holiday rule in the US, right?

Priority – Article 4A of the Paris Convention

(1) Any person who has duly filed an application for a patent, or for the registration of a utility model, or of an industrial design, or of a trademark, in one of the countries of the Union, or his successor in title, shall enjoy, for the purpose of filing in the other countries, a right of priority during the periods hereinafter fixed.

(2) Any filing that is equivalent to a regular national filing under the domestic legislation of any country of the Union or under bilateral or multilateral treaties concluded between countries of the Union shall be recognized as giving rise to the right of priority.

It’s July and that means that I start thinking about Christmas presents (oh my!).  I was recently at a block sale (no, the block wasn’t for sale  🙂  it was a bunch of people who got together to sell stuff in one location) at which there were about 15 or 20 vendors.  One of the vendors was selling an expandable carry-on fight bag with wheels for $1.00.  One woman walked by pulling one of the bags and gushed at how good of a deal she got[1].  However …