Towards a Halphen theory of linear series on curves

A linear series on a curve C in $P^3$ is "primary" when it does not contain the series cut by planes. We provide a lower bound for the degree of these series, in terms of deg(C), g(C) and of the number $s = min{i: h^0(I_C(i))\neq 0}$; as a corollary, we obtain bounds for the gonality of C. Examples show that our bound is sharp. Extensions to the case of general linear series and to the case of curves in higher projective spaces are considered.