MPEP Section 1817.02, Continuation or Continuation-in-Part Indication in the Request
Executive summary:
This document contains Section 1817.02 ("Continuation or Continuation-in-Part Indication in the Request") of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (the "M.P.E.P."), Eighth Edition, Eighth Revision (July 2010). This page was last updated in January 2011. You may return to the section index to find a particular section. Alternatively, you may search the MPEP using the search box that appears on the left side of every page of BitLaw--you may restrict your search to the MPEP on the search results page.
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1817.02 Continuation or Continuation-in-Part Indication in the Request [R-7]
PCT RULE 4
The Request (Contents)
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**>PCT RULE 4.11.
Reference to Continuation or Continuation-in-Part, or Parent Application or Grant
(a) If:
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(ii) the applicant intends to make an indication under Rule 49bis.1(d) of the wish that the international application be treated, in any designated State, as an application for a continuation or a continuation-in-part of an earlier application; the request shall so indicate and shall indicate the relevant parent application or parent patent or other parent grant.<
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The Supplemental Box of the request form should be used where the applicant has an earlier pending United States nonprovisional application or international application designating the U.S. and wishes the later filed international application to be treated as a continuation or continuation-in-part of such earlier application. To properly identify the parent application, the specific reference must identify the parent application by application number and indicate the relationship to the parent application (i.e., "continuation" or "continuation-in-part"). The specific reference must also indicate the filing date of the parent application if the parent application is an international application. See 37 CFR 1.78(a).
Identification of the parent application in the request does not relieve applicants from having to perfect the benefit claim upon entry into the U.S. national stage by including a proper claim in an application data sheet or in the first sentence(s) of the specification (see 37 CFR 1.78(a)(2)). However, inclusion of a proper reference to the parent application in the international phase does provide certain benefits to applicants, e.g., where applicant chooses to file a continuing application claiming benefit under 35 U.S.C. 365(c) to the international application (i.e., a bypass application) rather than entering the U.S. national phase under 35 U.S.C. 371.