INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Patent family with continuation and divisional filings

This US patent family tree tracks a provisional filing into a nonprovisional parent application and its descendant filings. The parent issued as a patent. One continuation issued, while a divisional and a continuation-in-part remain pending. Continuations, divisionals and continuations-in-part have different legal relationships, so labelling each branch matters. The chart gives a compact view of procedural lineage and status when a portfolio contains multiple descendants from a common disclosure. It should be used as a working overview alongside official prosecution records, since filing relationships and status can be more nuanced than a hierarchy can express. Record the relevant application number, filing date and status on every node to keep the discussion traceable.

UPDATED 2026-09-24
EXAMPLEPatent family with continuation and divisional filings
Make this diagram your own.

Open it in the AI editor with a prompt pre-filled — keep what works, change what doesn't.

CASE ANALYSIS

Scenario

US prosecution history

Key decisions

  • Parent application: Keep the nonprovisional below its provisional priority filing.
  • Continuation branch: Show later continuations as children of the parent.
  • Branch labels: Distinguish divisional and continuation-in-part filings.

When to reuse this

Use this to separate US descendant applications that have different prosecution paths.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is a continuation application?01
It is a later US application that claims priority to an earlier nonprovisional and generally uses the same disclosure.
What is a divisional application?02
It is a child application filed for an invention divided out of a parent application.
What is a continuation-in-part?03
It is a continuation that adds new subject matter to the earlier disclosure.
Open this example in the editor →

Tweak it with chat, export PNG/SVG, or fork it for your own use case.