Intellectual Property

  If you need to record an enhancement to an invention that was featured in an earlier application, then you can choose to file a divisional patent application, a continuation-in-part (CIP) patent application or a continuation application. Patent of addition applications (present in New Zealand, Australia, and India) and divisional applications (available in China and Europe) bear similarities to CIP patent applications. However, in this blog post, we focus on highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of the CIP patent application available in the U.S. The CIP patent application features new innovations related to the original (parent) application and is filed after it. Previously filed claims in the CIP application have the priority date of the parent application and claims that disclose new subject matter have a different priority date. If your invention has other embodiments, then your best bet is to file a CIP application to protect it better, which also strengthens your ...