CONTINUING APPLICATION A continuing application is basically an original patent application that is refiled. The second application is entitled to the benefit of the filing date of the first application, and must be filed as a separate application before termination of proceedings on the prior application. Thus, after an applicant has received a final rejection, but before the examination proceedings have been terminated, an applicant can file a continuing application and start the examination process all over again. A continuing application is appropriate where the original application contained patentable subject matter but did not clearly identify or distinguish it from prior inventions. This procedure can be continued over several or more continuations, but it does involve the payment of additional fees by the applicant. The filing of a number of continuations may also significantly shorten the ultimate enforceable term of a resulting patent. A more streamlined continuation application is also available. This type of application is known as a Request For Continued Examination (“RCE”). While the fees are similar to a regular continuation application, the advantage is that an RCE application receives a more favorable placement in the Examiner’s queue and is examined again more rapidly. However, in order to file this type of continuing application, the Applicant must respond to each of the Examiner’s objections and rejections raised in the original application. CONTINUATION-IN-PART A continuation-in-part is an application filed during the lifetime of an earlier application by the same applicant, repeating some substantial portion or all of the earlier application and adding matter not disclosed in the earlier case. The continuation-in-part
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