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You are here: Home / Protect Inventions / Continuation patent application and related divisional and continuation in part

Continuation patent application and related divisional and continuation in part

June 15, 2010 by James Yang

Continuation, divisional and continuation-in-part (CIP) applications are related to the filing of the prior filed patent application by a claim of priority.  The prior filed patent application may be referred to as the parent or base application.  The continuation, divisional and CIP application may be referred to as the child application.

The simplified definition for a continuation, divisional and CIP application involves what is disclosed and what is claimed.  The continuation application is the same disclosure as the parent application with claims similar to the parent application.  The divisional application is the same disclosure as the parent application but with claims directed to different subject matter compared to the parent application.  (e.g., receiver v. transmitter).  The CIP application adds new subject matter to the parent application with claims directed to the new subject matter.

There may be different reasons for filing the child application.  One important reason for filing the child application is to maintain pendency of your application with the Patent Office.  This allows you to broaden or shift focus of your claims as you see how the market and your competitors react to your product.  When your parent application matures into a patent, the claims can be broaden but only to a limited degree for a limited period of time.  Your competitors will look at your patent and attempt to “design around” the claims.  If your competitors are successful in designing around your patent, then the issued patent may be less valuable.

The claims that can be submitted in the pending child patent application can be much broader than the claims in the issued patent.  In this manner, the child application may be used to reintroduced claims so as to cover your competitor’s redesigned product at least to the extent that there is commonality between your patent disclosure and your competitor’s new product.  Without the child patent application, the claims of your issued patent may be broadened but only to a limited degree for a limited period of time which may not be sufficient to cover your competitor’s redesigned product.

Other reasons for filing the child patent application may include continuing prosecution of the claims in the parent application, seeking claims directed to other subject matter in your patent application and adding slight modifications to your invention, etc.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 949-433-0900 or [email protected]

Related Articles for Protecting Inventions

  • Four types of intellectual property you can use to protect your idea and how to use them
  • 8 tips to successfully protect your idea
  • Reasons to only market your invention after securing patent pendency
  • Patent protection benefits and why every inventor should consider getting one
  • Protect your idea when pitching to an investor, potential licensee, or buyer
  • Patent attorney and getting them to sign a confidentiality agreement
  • Can a confidentiality agreement protect me like a patent application?
  • Dangers of 1 yr grace period under first-inventor-to-file system
  • Beware of marketing an invention before filing a patent application
  • Risks and benefits of securing software patent protection
  • Strategy to overcome patentable subject matter rejection
  • Best uses for design patents
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  • Pros and cons of filing a continuation-in-part application
  • Benefits of Patent Protection
  • Continuation, divisional and continuation-in-part applications
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  • Abstract ideas require something more for patent protection
  • Abstract idea hard to define for patent eligibility purposes
  • USPTO Report On patent-eligible subject matter
  • Broad patents spread a wide net but more likely to be invalid
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Filed Under: After Filing a Patent Application, Continuation Practice, Patent application process, Protect Inventions

Author: James Yang

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