Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP)

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§ 4.14 Continuation or Continuation-in-Part - none Patent Cooperation Treaty

§ 4.14 Continuation or Continuation-in-Part

If the applicant wishes his international application to be treated, in any designated State, as an application for a continuation or a continuation-in-part of an earlier application, he shall so indicate in the request and shall identify the parent application involved.

§ 4.14^bis Choice of International Searching Authority

If two or more International Searching Authorities are competent for the searching of the international application, the applicant shall indicate his choice of International Searching Authority in the request.

§ 4.15 Signature

(a) Subject to paragraph (b), the request shall be signed by the applicant or, if there is more than one applicant, by all of them.

(b) Where two or more applicants file an international application which designates a State whose national law requires that national applications be filed by the inventor and where an applicant for that designated State who is an inventor refused to sign the request or could not be found or reached after diligent effort, the request need not be signed by that applicant if it is signed by at least one applicant and a statement is furnished explaining, to the satisfaction of the receiving Office, the lack of the signature concerned.

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