What Is a Child Patent?

Identification

• Child patents can be seen, somewhat logically, as following what are known as parent patents. They refer primarily to different steps in the patent application process. While the parent patent may be considered the initial patent application, the child patent might be called the continuation or divisional application which follows.
  
  

Significance

• The most fundamental concern the child patent addresses is competitor adjustment. When you patent a new product, technology etc., your competitors watch closely and may try to pattern their new developments after your own. The child patent, if done in a timely way, can protect not only the parent patent, but any other improvements or adjustments you need to make to secure that intellectual property and its future forms.
  
  

Time Frame

• The child patent expands upon the time-frame within which your claims to ownership can be validated. With just the parent patent, the period your claims are in force is more limited, as are the scope of those claims. Child patents afford a broader method of approach and increased access to legal recourse should the parent patent be violated.