Priority Claiming in Patent Application

Priority Claiming in Patent Application: Priority Claiming refers to cross-referencing to related applications, such as any patent applications from which priority is claimed, including any sister applications, such as divisional applications. Generally, these cross-references are included in the “Cross-Reference” section of the patent application.

According to laws or guidelines of various patent offices, it is generally mandatory that the first sentence of the specification contain a reference to each such prior application to obtain the benefit of the priority of prior-filed application(s). Also, it is advised to refer to any co-pending applications that are related to the application being filed in the said section.

Some of the points to be considered for claiming priority in a patent application is enlisted below:

It is important that the application that is being cross-referenced in the current application is sufficiently described to properly identify it without many undue efforts. For example, it is advisable to include the application number as provided by the concerned patent office along with the information such as a title of the application, date of filling, details about the inventor(s), such as full names, etc.
It is also important that all the applications in the chain are listed and shall be claiming priority from the concerned parent application; thus defining the proper chain to avoid any possibility of loss of priority.
Sometimes it is also advised that the application(s) being cross-referenced shall be incorporated by reference. This may turn out to be helpful during prosecution, as any disclosure in the cross-referenced application can be referred to and considered to be part of the current application verbatim, which may help to overcome sufficiency of disclosure rejections from the Examiner.
If the applicant is claiming priority from a provisional application older than one year, then it is required that the applicant also cross-refers the intermediate non-provisional application that was filed after and within one year of the filing date of the cross-referenced provisional application; otherwise, the patent office will not entertain the claimed priority.
If the cross-referred application is in a language other than the accepted languages of the patent office, it is necessary to provide a certified translated copy of the said cross-referred application.