O think the patent office somehow notifies the patent owner when a patent is about to be issued. I think IDCC has mentioned patents about to be issued in the past.
I not saying that is only a possible explanation. Time will tell.
Those continuation patents that have been issued were already mentioned at the hearing. They were issued on May 19, 2009 a week before the hearing. There has been no continuation patent issued since then. I verified that just now.