As a patent can be so crucial in maintaining a business advantage, many inventors/businesses wish to patent their inventions even before they are finalised. This is possible through a provisional patent, which helps the inventor establish earliest ownership over the invention on submission of the provisional specifications of the product or process. As India follows the first-to-file system, this would ensure that the holder of the provisional patent would also be granted the permanent patent. The documents for the permanent patent would, however, have to be filed within 12 months or else the application would be abandoned entirely.