priority

The quality or state of being prior. Precedence in completing an invention.

A term used to designate, in the United States, the date an invention was first conceived and reduced to practice. Also throughout the world, priority refers to the date a patent application was filed.

The Bankruptcy Code's statutory ranking of unsecured claims that determines the order in which unsecured claims will be paid if there is not enough money to pay all unsecured claims in full. For example, under the Bankruptcy Code's priority scheme, money owed to the case trustee or for prepetition alimony and/or child support must be paid in full before any general unsecured debt (

Priority, unless specifically qualified, is the right to occupy a specific frequency for authorized uses, free of harmful interference from stations of other agencies. [NTIA] 2. Synonym priority level. 3. In DOD record communications systems, one of the four levels of precedence used to establish the time frame for handling a given message. 4. In DOD voice communications systems, one of the levels of precedence assigned to a subscriber telephone for the purpose of preemption of telephone services.