Patenting inventions or inventing patents? Continuation practice at the USPTO
研究了标准必要专利审查中延续申请的使用情况，发现标准发布后延续申请增加80%-121%，且与许可型商业模式和审查员高授权率相关，表明申请人利用延续申请针对已发布标准起草侵权专利。
Abstract Continuations allow inventors to add new claims to old patents, leading to concerns about unintended infringement and holdup. We study how continuations are used in standard essential patent (SEP) prosecution. Difference in differences estimates suggest that continuation filings increase by 80%–121% after a standard is published. This effect is larger for applicants with licensing‐based business models and for patent examiners with a higher allowance rate. Claim language is more similar for SEPs filed after standard publication, and late‐filing is positively correlated with litigation. These findings suggest widespread use of continuations to draft patents that are infringed by already‐published standards.