Legal Definitions - substitute application

Substitute Application

A substitute application is a duplicate patent application filed after the response period for a first office action has expired and the first application has been deemed abandoned. It carries some danger for the applicant as the original filing date is lost, and any developments since that date become prior art that the examiner must consider before granting the patent.

• An inventor files a patent application but fails to respond to the first office action within the given time frame. The application is deemed abandoned, and the inventor files a substitute application to continue the patent process.
• A company files a patent application but realizes that there are errors in the original application. Instead of correcting the errors, they file a substitute application to start the process anew.

These examples illustrate how a substitute application is used when the original patent application is abandoned or has errors that cannot be corrected. It allows the applicant to start the process again, but they lose the original filing date and any developments since that date become prior art.