How does a patent examiner respond to an amendment referencing a prior application in a CPA?

When a patent examiner encounters an amendment attempting to reference a prior application in a Continued Prosecution Application (CPA), they should not enter the amendment and inform the applicant of this decision.

According to MPEP ¶ 2.34, examiners should use the following language:

“The amendment filed [1] requesting that the specification be amended to refer to the present Continued Prosecution Application (CPA) as a [2] application of Application No. [3] has not been entered. As set forth in 37 CFR 1.53(d)(7), a request for a CPA is the specific reference required by 35 U.S.C. 120 to every application assigned the application number identified in such request. Thus, there is no need to amend the first sentence(s) of the specification to refer back to the prior application and any such amendment shall be denied entry.”

Examiners should fill in the brackets with: [1] the filing date of the amendment, [2] either “continuation” or “divisional”, and [3] the Application Number of the prior nonprovisional application.

For more information on CPA, visit: CPA.