For product companies and inventors
Find out if your pending application can still support claims covering a competitor’s new product.
A competitor launched something close to your patent-pending product. While any application in your family is pending, your attorney may be able to file a continuation with new claims aimed at it. We check whether your as-filed specification may support those claims, and when the window closes.
Is your window still open?
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While an application is pending, new claims can still be added.
An application is pending until it issues as a patent or is abandoned. While any application in your family is pending, your attorney can file a continuation with new claims. The continuation can claim the earlier filing date.
Source: 35 U.S.C. 120; MPEP 211.01(b)
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The new claims must match what you already described.
Every new claim has to be supported by the specification as it was filed. Courts look closely at this when claims are added “in response to development by others”. That is why we cite the paragraph behind each element.
Source: Quake v. Lo (Fed. Cir. 2019)
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The window closes when the last pending application does.
A continuation must be filed on or before the day the parent issues. Patents issue on Tuesdays, shortly after the issue fee is paid. If the last pending application is abandoned instead, the window closes with it.
Source: MPEP 211.01(b), 1306.03
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Waiting costs more.
A continuation filed more than 6 years after the earliest benefit date carries a USPTO fee of $2,700 ($1,080 small entity, $540 micro). After 9 years it is $4,000 ($1,600 / $800). The clock starts at your earliest US nonprovisional or PCT filing date, not a provisional or foreign date. Calculate your dates.
Source: 37 CFR 1.17(w); CAF Guide Q4
Check your family now
The free checker reads public USPTO records. It shows which applications in the family are pending, the earliest benefit date and the dates the surcharges start.
Is this allowed?
What you get: a written report your attorney can check
Inside the report
- Family status
- Every application in your family, which ones are pending, and how they connect, from public USPTO records.
- The deadline
- The last day a continuation can be filed as things stand, any sign the parent is about to issue, and the dates the 6- and 9-year fees start.
- Support map
- Features from the competitor’s public product documentation, each matched to paragraphs in your as-filed specification, with a support level (our assessment: strong, partial or weak).
- Example claim language
- One to three draft claims for discussion with your practitioner. Each element cites the paragraph that may support it.
- Limits
- What we could not check, such as product features with no public documentation, so nothing is overstated.
What we don’t do
Public information only
Share it with your attorney
What your attorney gets
- Every claim element tied to a numbered paragraph of the as-filed specification, so each one can be verified.
- The USPTO status data and dates we relied on, with where they came from.
- Example claim language marked as draft, to accept, change or discard.
Three ways to involve them
- Mention their email when you contact us, and we copy them on the report.
- Forward the report yourself when it arrives.
- Send them this page first, with the button below. It opens your own email app; nothing goes through us.
No patent attorney yet?
Only patent attorneys and agents registered with the USPTO can represent you before it. The USPTO publishes a search of everyone registered.
Search registered practitioners (USPTO)
You can request a review before you have chosen one. The report is addressed for review by a registered patent practitioner, so you can hand it over as it is.
What it costs
After that, pricing depends on the families and products involved; contact us for a quote. USPTO fees and your attorney’s fees for any continuation are separate. The table shows the main USPTO amounts.
Fee schedule checked Oct 23, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a patent attorney?
We recommend one. Our report is prepared for review by a registered patent practitioner, who uses their own judgment and decides whether and what to file. We do not prepare, file or prosecute applications. If you do not have a practitioner yet, the USPTO publishes a search of registered patent attorneys and agents at oedci.uspto.gov.
What if my application already issued?
Check the rest of the family. If another application in it, such as an earlier continuation, is still pending, a new continuation can be filed from that one. If every application has issued or been abandoned, a new continuation can no longer claim the earlier date. Filing on the issue date itself is still in time (MPEP 211.01(b)).
What if I only have a provisional application?
A provisional cannot be the parent of a continuation. The window needs a pending nonprovisional application in the family, or a pending PCT application designating the US. A nonprovisional that claims the provisional must be filed within 12 months of it (MPEP 211.01(a)). We work from published applications only, so we can review yours once it publishes.
My only pending application was abandoned. Is it too late?
Not always. The MPEP lists providing copendency with a later application as one purpose of a petition to revive under 37 CFR 1.137 (MPEP 711.03(c)). It needs a petition fee and a statement that the delay was unintentional. Whether it fits your case is a question for your practitioner.
Is it legitimate to add claims aimed at a competitor’s product?
Yes. The Federal Circuit has said there is “nothing improper” in amending or inserting claims “intended to cover a competitor’s product” the applicant learned about during prosecution (Kingsdown v. Hollister, Fed. Cir. 1988). The claims still have to be supported by what the specification disclosed when it was filed.
Will the new claims cover the competitor’s product?
No one can promise that. We report whether your as-filed specification may support claims covering features shown in the product’s public documentation. The examiner decides what is allowed and your practitioner decides what to file. A pending application has no enforceable claims, and our report is not an infringement opinion.
What do you need from me?
A published US application, publication or patent number, and a public link to the competitor’s product. Nothing confidential: do not send unpublished applications or internal documents. If anything confidential arrives, we delete it without using it.
Seen a competitor’s launch? Check your pending family before it issues.
Send the application number and the product link. Within 48 hours we email a report for your patent practitioner. The first reviews are free.