Before finalizing your first patent application, you should start planning for the next one. For example, you can patent an improved version of your invention with unexpected benefits, use a drug to treat a different disease, or create a new formulation that solves a problem with the original.
It’s tempting to add a preliminary discussion of your next invention to the current patent application as you think about how to broaden the claims. This would be a mistake. You might create an absurd situation where you can’t patent your planned invention in the first application because it lacks data essential to support the claims and can’t patent it in a later application because the first is cited as prior art.
A partial solution to this dilemma is to file the second application before publication of the first. Europe has the strictest rule for prior art. In Europe, a published application is prior art for both novelty and obviousness, while an unpublished patent application is only prior art for novelty. Accordingly, a second application filed before publication of the first can include claims that are obvious variations of what was disclosed in the first application.
