A U.S. patent application is entitled to the filing date of an earlier "parent" application under certain conditions. The subsequent application (which is called a continuing application) must be for an invention disclosed in the earlier application; must be filed before the earlier application is issued as a patent, is abandoned, or rejected by the courts; must be filed by at least one inventor named in the earlier application; and must contain a reference to the earlier application at the time of filing. Thus, a patent application is entitled to the benefit of the filing date of one or more prior, copending applications which have at least one common inventor if the invention claimed in the subsequent (continuing) application is disclosed in the prior application and the prior application is referenced in the continuing application. An appropriate reference to a related application will be generated by InPress Patent as follows:
"This is a (division, continuation, or continuation-in-part) of application Serial No.( ) filed (date)."
Law - Related (Parent) Patent Application(s)