How does the USPTO treat a ‘conditional’ request for a CPA?

This page is an FAQ based on guidance from the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure. It is provided as guidance, with links to the ground truth sources. This is information only: it is not legal advice.

The USPTO treats all ‘conditional’ requests for Continued Prosecution Applications (CPAs) as unconditional requests. According to MPEP ¶ 2.35:

Any “conditional” request for a CPA submitted as a separate paper is treated as an unconditional request for a CPA.

This means that once a conditional CPA request is submitted, it will be processed as a standard CPA, regardless of the applicant’s original intent.

For more information on CPA, visit: CPA.