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Patent of addition or a separate application?
For an improvement to your own invention. A patent of addition avoids an inventive-step attack over your main invention, but it lives and dies with the main patent.
A patent of addition depends on a live main invention.
High complexity - significant legal consequences
Please review this with an advocate, patent attorney or registered patent agent before you act. Do not rely on this answer alone.
- It cannot be granted before the main patent (section 54(4)), and it ends when the main patent ceases (section 55(1)).
- If the main application or patent is no longer alive, file an ordinary application.
- If the main application was published, it is prior art against the new application, so the improvement must be inventive over it.
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Educational guidance only - not legal advice. Do not rely on it. It cannot see your documents, your dates or the prior art, and those usually decide the answer. Laws, rules, forms, fees and deadlines change. Please review your situation with a qualified advocate, patent attorney or registered patent agent before you act or decide not to act.
Not sure whether this applies to your invention?
The honest answer usually needs someone to look at your actual disclosure, your timeline and the prior art. That is a conversation, not an article.