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[VeryNewbie]

Hello Forum,
  When you are drafting a Non-provisional from a provision, you are only allowed to claim the subject matter that was filed in the provision if you want to receive that priority date.   When you talk about matter, does it have to be explicitly discussed?   If I say bicycle in the specification of the provisional, will I be able to talk about wheels and gears if I didnt explictly mention them.   If the USPTO will not allow it, are these easy  arguments to overcome?

[TataBox]

You have to remember that it does not necessarily have to be worded in the specification.  In your drawings you probably would have illustrated a bicycle.  New matter is anything added, that is not shown or SUGGESTED by the previous application.  

IMO an argument that the word "bicycle" suggests gears and wheels would be tough because it is such a broad term.   There are many parts, subparts, frames i.e. titanium, carbon fiber etc.   I would be like mentioning the word "computer" and trying to claim a socket for a integrated circuit or something.

However, a provisional must also meet requirements of 112 paragraph 1, so if you mentioned bicycle and did not talk about gears, I am guessing you will have some other serious issues to contend with.

[JimIvey]

You're correct in that, to receive benefit of the provisional filing date, the claim must be supported by the provisional application.  

As for the bicycle, wheels, gears hypothetical, you might be able to argue that wheels and gears are inherent parts of bicycles and everyone knows bicycles have those.  So, you can argue no new matter.  However, I'd say it's an uphill battle to win that argument -- at least in the PTO; you'd probably have better luck in the courts.

However, I doubt very much that that's the end of your story.  Why do you want to mention wheels?  Typically, it's because something else in the claim(s) needs that part -- e.g., a light powered by pressing a roller of a generator against the tire.  That connection between your generator and the tire is much more difficult to argue as inherent in your previously disclosed "powered by a bicycle" in the provisional.  

In short, you seem to perceive a missing link by not having the wheel and gears disclosed in the provisional application and that perceived need suggests that the provisional was lacking and that adding it to the non-provisional would not be sufficient to get the benefit of the provisional's filing date.

Regards.