Which one is DDCC filing for?
in the case of
(a) an application that is pending and has NOT been issued.
(b) an issued patent that HAS expired.
(c) an issued patent that has NOT expired.
For (a) an application that has NOT yet been issued, sub-questions:
(1) Does the NEW application cancel the previous (original) application, taking its priority (filing) date? If the new application is defeated/rejected, does their original application come back to life or is it also lost?
(2) Does a significant change in the continuation application mean that the original application(s) was/were flawed and/or incomplete? How does this affect the new patent application credibility?
(3) Assuming the continued application builds upon the prior application (ergo, requiring prior art pertaining to original claims to predate the previous filing date), how does prior art on ADDED or CHANGED items affect the application, i.e. does prior art for new/changed claims also need to predate the ORIGINAL filing date?
For (b) an issued patent that HAS expired:
(1) Can a continuation patent be filed for an expired patent?
For (c) an issued patent that has NOT expired, sub-questions:
(1) Can a trivial change be used to simply extend the life of the patent, indefinitely by applying trivial changes periodically? Is there a solid litmus test for this or is it just up to the examiners?
(2) Can a major change that effectively turns the invention into something else be introduced periodically, resulting in indefinite continuations by simply writing in or incorporating new technologies as they come out, thus broadening the scope of the original invention (to the point where it covers completely different industries/areas)?
(3) If a continuation patent is found to be invalid, how does that affect the original (built upon) patent(s)?
