W&P International

FAQ

Filing applications

1. Should I file a provisional patent application?
   ans: A provisional application for patent (provisional application) is a U.S. national application filed in the USPTO under 35 U.S.C. §111(b). A provisional application is not required to have a formal patent claim or an oath or declaration. Provisional applications also should not include any information disclosure (prior art) statement since provisional applications are not examined. A provisional application provides the means to establish an early effective filing date in a later filed nonprovisional patent application filed under 35 U.S.C. §111(a). It also allows the term “Patent Pending” to be applied in connection with the description of the invention.

2. What is a PCT patent application?
   ans: A PCT patent application is a Patent Cooperation Treaty patent application. The Patent Cooperation Treaty is the international treaty that defines the patent rights granted between the contracting states. Presently, with few exceptions, nearly all industrialized nations are signatories to the PCT. The PCT patent application is a single application filed at one of the international receiving offices (of which the USPTO is one) that grants the applicant the right to file future national patent applications in any of the contracting states. It is commonly referred to as an international patent application.

3. What is a continuation patent application?
   ans: Continuation applications utilize the parent application's disclosure and claim the benefit of the parent application. In order for a continuation application to be granted the filing date of the parent application it must: (1) be filed while the parent application is pending, (2) have at least one inventor in common with the parent application, and (3) have claims that are fully supported by the parent application's disclosure

4. What is a divisional patent application?
   ans: The Patent Office commonly finds that an application impermissibly claims more than one invention. Upon this finding, the Patent Office issues a Restriction Requirement that requires the applicant to choose one of the disclosed inventions for prosecution and to remove the claims directed to the other invention. The applicant may then file a divisional application at any time during which the parent application is pending wherein the claims that were removed from the original application are resubmitted.

5. What is a Continuation-In-Part(CIP) application?
   ans: it contains the parent application's disclosure PLUS additional disclosure. Claims that are supported by the parent application's disclosure may obtain an effective filing date of the parent application, however claims that are supported by the additional disclosure may not obtain the effective filing date.