Thursday, July 21, 2016

Continuation-in-Part Design Patent Applications

Deciding when and under what circumstances a design patent application can claim priority to an earlier filed application can be a challenging task. In particular, we often get asked whether a design patent application may be filed as a continuation-in-part (CIP) of an earlier filed design patent application. While the quick answer is yes, the disadvantages associated with CIPs often outweigh the benefits.