Video Transcript

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Today we’re going to do patent continuations in under a minute. What is a continuation? Well, when you file a patent application, the application itself is a document designed to teach other people how to build your invention. But the actual valuable portion of the patent is the patent claim, and the patent claim basically tells you, “Here’s what you have a monopoly on.” If it’s not claimed, you don’t have a patent on it — you don’t have a monopoly on it.

So you don’t have to claim every single portion of your invention simultaneously. In fact, it’s probably a bad idea to do that because it’s extremely expensive. You’ll want to claim the important parts first, and then before the patent issues, you can file something called a continuation, which uses the very same document. The only thing that changes is the claims, and sometimes the name of the patent application.

And that, in under a minute, is continuation practice for patents. Signing off from The Innovation Cafe!