Look up a US patent application
Enter an application, publication or patent number. See whether it’s still pending, its family, and the last day to file a continuation, from live USPTO data.
How the lookup works
What it reads
One lookup in the USPTO Open Data Portal finds the application you entered, with its continuity data and transaction history. A second finds every application that claims benefit from the same family root. From those records we take each member’s status, filing date, patent number and issue date, and three events: Notice of Allowance mailed, issue fee paid, and Issue Notification.
Searching without a number
This lookup needs an application, publication or patent number. To find pending applications by keyword, assignee or inventor, use USPTO Patent Public Search. It shows only published applications: most are published promptly after 18 months from the earliest filing date for which benefit is sought (35 U.S.C. 122(b)).
What “pending” means
A continuation must be filed “before the patenting or abandonment of or termination of proceedings on” the parent (35 U.S.C. 120). So the continuation window is open while at least one nonprovisional member is pending. Filing on the issue date itself still counts (MPEP 211.01(b)). Provisionals are shown in the family but never open a window.
For each pending member, the lookup flags the most serious risk: issuing (issue fee paid or Issue Notification sent), allowed (Notice of Allowance out, fee not yet paid), or Board decision rendered.
How the dates are computed
- Issue fee due: 3 months from the Notice of Allowance mail date, not extendable (MPEP 1308). A continuation filed on or before that day is copending.
- Issue date: taken from the USPTO record when it has one. Patents issue on Tuesdays (MPEP 1306.03), and the Issue Notification now comes about two weeks before issue (USPTO, Apr 2025). We never estimate an issue date.
- Earliest benefit date: the earliest US nonprovisional, PCT or Hague filing date in the chain. Provisional and foreign priority dates are left out (CAF Guide Q4).
- Fee dates: the continuing application fee starts the day after the 6-year anniversary of that date, and the higher fee the day after the 9-year anniversary. An anniversary on a weekend or Federal holiday moves to the next business day (CAF Guide Q14–15). The surcharge calculator shows the fee for a given filing date.
Limits
- Status data can lag the law. An application is abandoned the day after its reply period ends, but the status changes later (MPEP 711.04(a)). When a deadline in the record appears to have passed, the lookup says so rather than guessing.
- Office action reply deadlines are not computed. A pending application can still go abandoned for lack of a reply.
- Open Data Portal records start with applications filed around 2001. Older ancestors appear only as continuity rows.
- A co-pendency gap anywhere in the chain is flagged, not fixed. Check it against the file history.
- Results are cached for up to 24 hours. Check Patent Center before filing.
Frequently asked questions
How do I search pending patent applications?
If you have a number, enter it above: a US application number (16/254,445), publication number (US 2019/0158905 A1) or patent number. You get the status of every application in the family and which are still pending. To search by keyword, assignee or inventor, use USPTO Patent Public Search (ppubs.uspto.gov). Most applications are published promptly after 18 months from the earliest filing date for which benefit is sought, so newer filings, and those with a nonpublication request, will not appear there yet (35 U.S.C. 122(b)).
When is a patent family still open for a continuation?
While at least one nonprovisional application in the family is pending. A continuation must be filed before the parent is patented or abandoned, or its proceedings end (35 U.S.C. 120; MPEP 211.01(b)). A provisional application cannot be the parent of a continuation.
Can I still file a continuation on the day the parent issues?
Yes. The MPEP treats an application filed on the same date the parent patent issues as copending (MPEP 211.01(b); Immersion Corp. v. HTC Corp., Fed. Cir. 2016). The day after the issue date is too late. Patents issue on Tuesdays (MPEP 1306.03).
Does paying the issue fee close the window?
No, the issue date does. But patents issue shortly after the issue fee is paid, and the MPEP calls filing the continuation before paying the fee best practice. The Issue Notification, which gives the issue date, now comes about two weeks before issue (USPTO, May 2025).
What if the issue fee is never paid?
The application is treated as abandoned as of the day the fee was due, which is 3 months after the Notice of Allowance and cannot be extended. A continuation filed on or before that due date is copending (MPEP 711.02(c), 1308).
The only pending application was abandoned. Is the window gone?
The lookup reports the continuation window as closed. For information: an abandoned application can sometimes be revived by petition under 37 CFR 1.137, and providing copendency with a later application is one listed purpose (MPEP 711.03(c)). Whether that fits a given family is a question for a registered patent practitioner.
Why is the earliest benefit date not my provisional date?
The continuing application fee counts from the earliest filing date claimed under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c) or 386(c). Provisional and foreign priority dates do not count (CAF Guide Q4). The lookup shows that date and the 6- and 9-year fee dates that follow from it.
Have a pending family and a competitor product in mind?
Send us the application number and a link to the product. We check whether the as-filed specification may support claims covering it, and reply by email within 48 hours. The first reviews are free.