A United States Continuation-In-Part patent application, which consists of new material added to the disclosure of an existing patent application by the same inventor. This can arise when in the course of development the inventor finds a way to further improve the invention. The CIP would potentially result in a second patent. A CIP application has two priority dates, that of the original application for the original disclosure and that of the new material for the new disclosure.
Although CIP applications are technically not available in most non-U.S. patent systems, as a practical matter, provided there has been no publication, an applicant can file a second application containing further developments of the invention as a quasi-CIP. It is good practice to revisit pending patent applications periodically to determine whether further improvements or evolutions of the invention have arisen, which might support a CIP.