When you file a patent, you’re trying to capture the heart of your invention—the thing that makes it special. But sometimes, your invention doesn’t fit neatly into one box. It might have several ideas that are connected, but not identical. And that’s where things get tricky.
Understanding Unity of Invention — Why the Patent Office Splits Your Ideas
When you file a patent, you’re essentially telling a story about how something new works. You’re showing the world what makes your invention different.
But the patent office doesn’t just care about your story—they care about how many stories you’re trying to tell in one go. This is what they call the “unity of invention.”
If your patent application tries to cover several different inventions or technical ideas at once, the examiner will flag it. They’ll say the application lacks unity.
It’s not that they think your invention is bad—it’s that you’re asking for protection that’s too broad or scattered. Imagine walking into a meeting and pitching five different startup ideas at once.
Even if all of them are great, your audience would struggle to focus. The patent office feels the same way.
Why Unity Matters
Unity isn’t just a formality. It’s about clarity and fairness. Every patent application is meant to protect one inventive concept—the core technical problem and the unique solution you’re offering.
When that clarity disappears, examiners can’t do their job efficiently, and your protection can become tangled.
For example, say your company develops a new type of sensor that not only measures air quality but also adjusts ventilation automatically and uses machine learning to predict pollution trends.
That’s a lot of innovation. Each of those functions might be seen as a separate inventive concept. The examiner might tell you to pick one—the main one—and file the others separately.
Here’s where many founders panic or feel frustrated. It can seem like you’re being forced to split your invention apart. But in reality, the system is giving you a chance to expand your coverage strategically.
Turning Unity Issues into a Strategic Advantage
The moment you receive a unity objection, you’re standing at a crossroads.
You can either fight it, which often delays your patent and costs more, or you can treat it as an opportunity to create a stronger, more flexible patent portfolio.
Think of each unique inventive concept as a business asset. When your invention is split into separate filings, each one can protect a specific product line, version, or technical feature.
This gives your company room to grow. One patent might cover the base technology, while others protect improvements, add-ons, or specialized versions.
Startups that understand this early often end up with a patent family that supports multiple business directions.
They can license one branch to partners, use another as leverage in negotiations, and keep the core patent as their crown jewel.
Unity objections, when handled wisely, are a signal that your invention has depth and diversity—and that’s good news.
How to Stay in Control
The key is timing and awareness. When drafting your first patent application, don’t rush through the claims. Think about how each feature fits into the bigger story of your technology.
Ask yourself which part is the core idea and which parts are extensions or variations.
If you sense that your invention covers multiple ideas, plan ahead for potential divisionals. Keep your claims organized in a way that makes it easy to split them later without losing their connection to the original filing.
This foresight can save months of rework and thousands of dollars later.
Another smart move is to keep clear documentation of how your ideas connect technically.
The stronger your explanation of their relationship, the easier it will be to argue for unity—or to decide where to draw the line if you must divide.
Using Professional Tools and Guidance
This is where modern tools like PowerPatent can make a big difference. The platform helps founders spot unity risks early and guides them on how to structure their claims before filing.
You get the clarity of AI-assisted drafting plus the reassurance of real attorney oversight. That means when a unity issue comes up, you already have a plan.
Instead of reacting under pressure, you can make informed, fast decisions about whether to file a divisional or adjust your claims. It’s the difference between scrambling to fix a problem and calmly executing a strategy.
Unity of invention is often seen as a roadblock, but it’s really a map. It shows you how to build a portfolio that reflects every dimension of your innovation.
The more thoughtfully you handle this step, the stronger and more future-proof your intellectual property becomes.
And that’s exactly what smart founders do—they don’t just file patents, they build systems of protection that grow as their ideas do.
The Birth of a Divisional — Turning One Application into Many
When the patent office says your application lacks unity, it might sound like bad news. But it’s actually the beginning of a new strategy.
This is where the concept of a divisional application steps in—a simple but powerful way to protect every valuable part of your invention without starting from scratch.
A divisional is like a branch growing from the same trunk as your original patent. It carries the same DNA, meaning it keeps the same filing date and the same disclosure, but it focuses on a different part of the invention.
You don’t lose your earlier priority date, which is crucial because in patents, timing is everything. Whoever files first wins, and divisionals help you hold onto that early advantage.
How a Divisional Comes to Life
A divisional starts when you decide that your original patent application can’t or shouldn’t cover everything at once. Sometimes the examiner insists, and sometimes you choose to do it proactively.
Either way, the goal is to make sure each important idea in your invention has a dedicated application of its own.
Imagine you built a new kind of robotic arm. Your main application covers the mechanical structure, the motion control system, and the sensor feedback loop.
The examiner reviews it and says these are three different inventive concepts. You choose one for the original application—say, the motion control system—and you file divisionals for the others.
Each of these new filings will trace back to your first filing date.
That’s the magic of a divisional. It lets you expand without losing ground.
Why Timing and Coordination Matter
The window for filing a divisional is limited. You can only file it while the original (or “parent”) application is still pending. Once it’s granted, withdrawn, or abandoned, the opportunity closes. That’s why timing matters so much.
Founders often miss this chance because they don’t plan ahead. They focus on the main application and wait too long to decide on the others. By the time they realize the importance of the additional ideas, it’s too late.
The best way to stay ahead is to track your patent process closely and treat the unity objection as a trigger for strategic review. When you receive that objection, don’t rush into amending your claims without thinking.
Step back and ask, “Should this idea live in its own application?” If the answer is yes, move quickly.
Having a divisional strategy ready can mean the difference between owning your entire innovation and leaving parts of it open for competitors to use.
Turning Divisionals into an Advantage
Many founders think of divisionals as a technical or administrative task, but they can be one of your strongest business tools. Each divisional represents a potential product, feature, or revenue stream.
When you separate your inventions correctly, you’re not just complying with the rules—you’re creating a portfolio of assets that can grow with your company.
Let’s say your startup builds advanced battery systems. Your first patent covers the core chemistry, but during the review, you realize there’s also novelty in the cooling design and the control algorithm.
Instead of forcing them into one filing, you can use divisionals to protect each one separately.
Later, you might license the cooling technology to a partner while keeping the chemistry secret, or sell the control algorithm as a standalone IP asset.
This flexibility is priceless. You get to choose how to monetize, defend, or expand your technology at every stage.
Coordinating Claims Across Applications
One of the biggest challenges when working with divisionals is keeping your claims consistent and non-overlapping.
If your claims are too similar across filings, you might run into double patenting issues. If they’re too far apart, you might leave gaps competitors can exploit.
This balance takes planning. You need to know exactly what each divisional is protecting and how it fits into the bigger IP picture. This is why having both AI tools and real attorney guidance makes such a difference.
AI can map relationships between your claims quickly, showing you how they connect or overlap. Attorneys can then refine the language to ensure maximum protection with minimal risk.
When everything is aligned, your patent family works like a defense system—each piece covering a unique angle of your innovation.
PowerPatent’s Role in Simplifying Divisionals
PowerPatent helps founders take the guesswork out of this process. The platform doesn’t just help you write your first application—it helps you plan your entire patent family.
When a unity objection appears, you’ll already know which features belong together and which deserve their own filings.
Using PowerPatent, you can simulate claim structures, see how they might be split later, and prepare for divisionals before the examiner even asks. You stay in control of your invention’s future instead of reacting to surprises.
More importantly, you can handle all this without losing time or burning through cash. Traditional firms often make the divisional process slow and expensive. PowerPatent keeps it simple, fast, and founder-friendly.
The Bigger Picture
When you look at companies with strong IP portfolios, you’ll often find a common pattern. Their success doesn’t come from filing one perfect patent—it comes from building a series of connected patents over time.
Divisionals are the tool that makes that possible. They let you protect the past, present, and future of your idea.
By the time your product hits the market, you might have multiple patents—each covering a different part of your technology. This layered protection keeps competitors guessing and investors confident.
When handled right, a divisional is not just a backup plan—it’s a growth strategy. It turns what looks like a limitation into a way to multiply your patent power.
Why Divisionals Are a Startup’s Secret Weapon
When you’re building a startup, every decision matters. You move fast, experiment, and pivot when needed. But when it comes to patents, founders often assume it’s a one-time action—file it, forget it, and move on.
The truth is, your patent strategy should evolve just like your product does. That’s where divisionals quietly become one of the most powerful tools in your intellectual property arsenal.
Most founders think of a divisional as just a technical follow-up to a unity objection, but in reality, it’s a way to build long-term leverage.
Big companies have used divisionals for decades to build strong patent families that protect not just their original invention but every twist and turn that follows.
Startups can use the exact same strategy, often with even more impact.
Building Depth Instead of Breadth
Startups usually start with one core idea—the spark that sets everything in motion.
But as the product evolves, new technical innovations pop up. Some come from customer feedback, others from performance improvements or new integrations.
When these changes start stacking up, it’s tempting to cram everything into a single patent. That’s a mistake.
Filing divisionals allows you to go deeper instead of wider. Instead of writing one bloated patent that tries to cover everything, you can focus each divisional on a distinct technical angle.
This gives you cleaner protection, clearer claims, and more enforceable rights.
For example, if your startup builds an AI-driven logistics system, your original patent might protect the optimization engine.
Later, you could use divisionals to separately protect your data preprocessing method, your route-learning model, or even the way your system integrates with third-party hardware.
Each divisional reinforces your competitive moat without diluting the original invention.
That’s what larger companies do when they talk about “building a patent family.” It’s not about having hundreds of random filings—it’s about having a connected set of protections that cover your innovation like armor.
Flexibility for Funding and Growth
Patents aren’t just legal assets—they’re business assets. When you’re raising capital, investors want to see not only that your technology is protected but that it can scale.
A single patent shows innovation; a family of well-planned divisionals shows strategy.
Divisionals can also create optionality. Each one is a separate property that can be licensed, sold, or used in partnerships.
You can keep some for your core business and license others to generate revenue. If a partnership doesn’t go as planned, you still retain control of your main IP.
Imagine being in a negotiation where your potential partner is interested in one specific part of your tech stack.
Instead of sharing your entire patent, you can point to a divisional that covers only that portion. You gain negotiating power because you’re not giving away the whole house to sell one room.
Staying Ahead of Competitors
In fast-moving industries, your biggest threat isn’t just copycats—it’s companies that build “around” your patent.
They study your claims and find ways to tweak their products just enough to avoid infringement. Divisionals are how you make that difficult.
When you file multiple connected patents, each one focused on a different aspect of your invention, you create a web of protection. Competitors can’t just sidestep one claim—they have to navigate an entire field of them.
It raises their cost of entry, slows their development, and often deters them altogether.
This is why major tech companies like Apple, Tesla, and Qualcomm rely so heavily on divisionals.
It’s not just about covering more ground; it’s about making it harder for anyone else to compete in the same space. And startups can use the same tactic at a fraction of the cost if they plan early.
Adapting to Product Evolution
No startup ends up exactly where it started. You might launch with one version of your product and, within a year, find that customers are using it in new ways.
Those changes often reveal fresh technical innovations that deserve protection. Divisionals allow you to keep filing new applications tied to your original filing date, as long as you stay within the rules.
This means you can grow your patent coverage alongside your product roadmap. You’re not locked into a single definition of your invention from day one.
Instead, you’re continuously building protection around each new development.
For example, if your startup originally patented a wearable health device focused on heart monitoring, and later you integrate oxygen sensing or AI-driven prediction models, you can use divisionals to protect those features without losing the early filing date advantage.
This keeps your IP current and relevant as your product evolves—a key factor when investors or acquirers evaluate the strength of your technology.
Divisionals as a Shield in Patent Battles
If your startup ever faces a challenge—whether from a competitor’s lawsuit or a patent troll—having a well-structured family of divisionals can be a game changer. It gives you multiple angles of defense.
When someone challenges one of your patents, you still have others to rely on. If they try to invalidate your main patent, your divisionals can still stand strong because each one focuses on a different inventive concept.
It’s like having backup plans already built into your IP.
In disputes, this kind of layered protection often shifts the balance of power. You have more leverage in settlement talks, and you can negotiate from a position of strength.
How PowerPatent Simplifies This Strategy
For most startups, the biggest challenge isn’t understanding the value of divisionals—it’s managing the complexity.
Tracking claims, coordinating filing dates, and ensuring consistency across applications can quickly become overwhelming.
PowerPatent takes this burden off your plate. The platform helps you visualize your entire patent family, understand how your claims interconnect, and plan your divisionals with confidence.
It’s like having a patent strategist working alongside you, supported by real attorneys who know how to translate your product roadmap into long-term protection.
You don’t have to guess which features deserve their own filings. PowerPatent’s smart guidance helps you identify which parts of your invention might trigger unity issues and how to handle them proactively.
This lets you move fast and stay protected—exactly what growing startups need.
The Long Game of Innovation Protection
Startups that think ahead about divisionals end up building stronger, more resilient IP portfolios. Each filing becomes a layer of security, a talking point for investors, and a foundation for future growth.
It’s easy to see patents as a checkbox, but the most successful founders see them as strategy. Divisionals aren’t just paperwork—they’re chess moves. Every time you file one, you’re controlling more of the board.
Handled well, divisionals don’t just protect your invention; they multiply its value.
They turn one good idea into a growing family of assets that move with your business, adapt with your technology, and stay relevant for years to come.
Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Losing Valuable Claims
Even the smartest founders can stumble when it comes to handling divisionals.
It’s not because the process is complicated—it’s because it’s easy to overlook small timing details, filing nuances, or strategic decisions that have big consequences later.
Divisionals are powerful, but they demand precision. If you miss a step, you could lose rights to inventions you’ve already built.
Most mistakes around divisionals happen when people treat them like a formality. In reality, they’re a key part of your patent family strategy.
The goal is to avoid the common traps that make startups lose coverage, waste money, or weaken their IP position without realizing it.
Waiting Too Long to File
The most common mistake is waiting until it’s too late. Once your original application is granted or abandoned, you can’t file a divisional. The door closes permanently.
Many founders don’t realize this because the process moves slowly, and the deadlines aren’t always clear.
Patent examiners can take months—or even years—to issue a unity objection. By the time it happens, your startup might be focused on product launches, funding rounds, or new tech development.
If you miss that window to file, you lose the chance to protect parts of your invention forever.
The smart move is to track your patent’s lifecycle proactively. The moment you file your original application, mark the key milestones. As soon as an examiner raises a unity issue, act quickly.
Talk with your attorney or IP advisor about whether a divisional makes sense before responding to the examiner.
PowerPatent helps automate this awareness. The platform flags key stages in your application process and alerts you when it’s time to consider a divisional. That way, you’re never caught off guard.
Overlapping Claims That Cause Conflicts
When filing a divisional, you must make sure your claims don’t overlap too much with the parent application. This issue, known as “double patenting,” can weaken both filings.
It can even lead to rejections later because the patent office may argue that you’re trying to get two patents for the same invention.
The solution is to define each invention clearly. Your divisional should focus on a distinct technical feature or inventive concept. It can share a foundation with the parent, but it must stand on its own.
Startups sometimes copy the same claim set from their parent application and just rename it as a divisional. That’s a mistake. Instead, think about what makes this version unique.
Is it a specific implementation, a component, or a new use case? Refine your claims accordingly.
Using AI tools inside PowerPatent, you can compare your draft claims across filings to identify overlaps automatically.
This saves hours of manual checking and ensures each patent in your portfolio serves a clear, independent purpose.
Losing Priority Rights
One of the biggest benefits of a divisional is that it inherits the filing date of your original application. This gives you a competitive edge, but only if your divisional fully aligns with the original disclosure.
If your new claims go beyond what was described in your first filing, you’ll lose that early priority date. This means competitors could claim they filed similar ideas earlier, and your divisional could be invalidated.
To prevent this, make sure your initial patent application includes a broad and detailed description of all related features.
Even if you don’t claim everything at first, describing them upfront allows you to create divisionals later without losing your priority protection.
Think of your first patent filing as planting seeds. The more you include in your original description, the more options you have for divisionals later.
PowerPatent helps founders draft applications with this flexibility built in, so you can adapt your IP strategy as your product evolves.
Failing to Align Divisionals with Business Goals
Sometimes founders file divisionals just to respond to the examiner, without linking the decision back to their product roadmap or funding goals.
This reactive approach can lead to unnecessary filings that drain resources without adding real value.
A better way is to align each divisional with a tangible business outcome. Ask yourself how each new filing supports your next stage of growth. Does it protect a new feature you plan to launch?
Strengthen your valuation for investors? Create leverage for partnerships?
If a divisional doesn’t serve a clear purpose, it’s worth rethinking. Every application should fit into a bigger vision of how your IP supports your business.
PowerPatent helps you visualize this connection. You can see how each patent and divisional relates to your products, technologies, and strategic priorities. That way, you file only what matters and skip what doesn’t.
Ignoring the Global Picture
For startups aiming for international growth, ignoring how divisionals fit into global patent systems can lead to lost opportunities. Unity rules vary between patent offices.
What qualifies as a single invention in the United States might be considered multiple inventions in Europe or Asia.
If you’re pursuing patents in multiple regions, you need a coordinated divisional strategy. Otherwise, you might end up protecting one part of your invention in one region and missing coverage in another.
Smart founders plan globally from day one. Even if you only file in one country now, structure your claims so they can support international filings later. That foresight makes expansion easier and cheaper when your business grows.
PowerPatent provides insights into how unity and divisionals are treated across different patent offices. This helps you make smart, forward-looking decisions without needing a team of international lawyers.
Underestimating the Long-Term Power of Divisionals
Many startups focus only on getting their first patent granted. Once it’s done, they move on to the next product feature and forget about the bigger picture. But the real power of divisionals shows up years later.
When competitors emerge or your company starts licensing technology, having a family of related patents gives you enormous leverage.
You can enforce your IP more effectively, negotiate from strength, and attract higher valuations during investment or acquisition talks.
Investors love startups with layered protection because it signals maturity and foresight. It shows you’re not just inventing—you’re building a defensible business. Divisionals make that possible.
Turning Pitfalls into Smart Practices
Every mistake around divisionals comes down to one thing: lack of planning. The best founders don’t wait for examiners to tell them what to do.
They think ahead, structure their filings strategically, and use the process to strengthen their IP position instead of reacting to it.
PowerPatent exists to make that kind of forward thinking easy. You can track timelines, visualize claim relationships, plan for divisionals, and get attorney-backed guidance all in one place.
It’s how modern startups avoid costly pitfalls and build patent portfolios that last.
When you understand how divisionals work—and more importantly, how they fit into your company’s growth—you stop seeing them as extra paperwork. You start seeing them as tools for control, protection, and future value.
Handled right, every divisional you file becomes another layer of defense around your idea. That’s how you keep your invention safe, your competitors guessing, and your business growing.
Building a Strong Patent Family with PowerPatent
Once you understand how divisionals work and why they matter, the next step is learning how to use them strategically to build a truly strong patent family.
A patent family isn’t just a collection of documents—it’s a structure that grows with your company, protecting every important piece of what you’ve built. And when managed right, it can become one of your most valuable assets.
In simple terms, a patent family is the set of patents that all trace back to the same original filing. Your parent application is the foundation, and each divisional or continuation you file becomes another branch.
The strength of your IP doesn’t come from how many patents you hold—it comes from how well they’re connected and how aligned they are with your business goals.
PowerPatent helps founders do exactly that. It’s not just about getting patents filed faster; it’s about creating a system of protection that grows intelligently, step by step, alongside your innovation.
The Anatomy of a Strong Patent Family
A strong patent family starts with a well-written parent application. This is the seed. It should be drafted with future divisionals in mind, covering your invention broadly enough to allow flexibility later.
That doesn’t mean vague—it means thoughtful.
When you write your first application with PowerPatent, the system helps you structure it so that each major feature or technical idea is clearly described.
This makes it easier to spin off those elements into divisionals later without losing priority rights.
As your technology evolves, you can add divisionals for new aspects, improvements, or integrations. The PowerPatent platform visualizes these relationships like a family tree.
You can see which inventions are covered, which need extra protection, and where potential gaps might exist.
This kind of clarity is rare in traditional patent management. Most firms work reactively—filing one application at a time. PowerPatent lets you think and act strategically from day one.
Turning Your Patent Family into a Competitive Moat
The true value of a patent family is how it strengthens your position in the market. When each patent in your family covers a specific layer of your product, you create a structure that’s hard for competitors to navigate.
For example, if your startup builds autonomous drone technology, your parent application might protect the navigation system.
One divisional could cover the obstacle detection module, another could protect the control algorithms, and a third might focus on data processing. Individually, each patent adds value.
Together, they form a protective wall around your core innovation.
This isn’t just about legal coverage—it’s about business leverage. When a potential investor, acquirer, or partner looks at your company, they see not just a single idea, but a portfolio of defensible assets.
It’s a clear sign that your startup isn’t easy to copy or replace.
Scaling Your IP Alongside Your Business
Most startups grow faster than their original patent strategy. You start with one product, then expand into new features, integrations, or markets. Without a clear system in place, your IP can quickly fall behind.
PowerPatent keeps your patent family in sync with your product roadmap. As you update your technology, you can easily track which patents or divisionals need to be filed next.
The software’s AI engine even helps you spot potential new filings by analyzing technical updates or documentation from your development process.
This approach turns IP from a slow, reactive task into a continuous growth engine. Your patents evolve naturally as your business evolves.
Avoiding the Chaos of Traditional IP Management
Traditional patent processes can feel messy—multiple attorneys, scattered drafts, forgotten deadlines, and endless back-and-forth. Divisionals add another layer of complexity, especially if you’re managing multiple filings in different regions.
PowerPatent eliminates that chaos. Everything lives in one intelligent system. You can see deadlines, related filings, examiner communications, and attorney notes all in one view.
If you decide to file a divisional, you can launch it directly from your existing application and maintain the full record of its connection to the parent.
No more searching through old emails or losing track of claim versions. PowerPatent keeps everything linked and organized automatically.
Aligning Patents with Product and Investor Goals
Every patent you file should connect back to your company’s vision. When founders use PowerPatent, they’re not just protecting technology—they’re building proof of innovation that investors can understand.
The platform helps translate your technical progress into a clear IP story. You can show how your patents cover your core technology, how your divisionals expand that coverage, and how each filing supports a key business milestone.
This makes a huge difference in funding conversations. Investors love to see that your intellectual property isn’t just paperwork—it’s a structured, forward-looking strategy.
It signals that your company takes its innovation seriously and knows how to protect it.
PowerPatent even helps generate IP summaries that founders can share in investor decks, showing how your patent family strengthens your defensibility over time.
The Human + AI Advantage
What makes PowerPatent different from traditional firms is the balance between AI-driven clarity and real attorney oversight.
The AI handles the complexity—drafting, cross-referencing, claim mapping—while experienced patent attorneys review and refine everything to make sure it meets legal and strategic standards.
This dual approach gives you the speed and affordability of technology with the confidence of professional review. You’re not choosing between automation and expertise—you’re getting both.
When you decide to file a divisional, the system doesn’t just replicate your parent application.
It guides you through the right claim structure, helps you avoid overlap, and ensures your new filing stays compliant with global patent rules.
It’s like having a built-in IP strategist who understands both your technology and your business goals.
The Long-Term View: Building a Legacy of Protection
Strong startups don’t just chase patents—they build portfolios that stand the test of time. Divisionals play a key role in that. Each one is a step toward a more complete, defensible, and valuable patent ecosystem.
Over time, your patent family becomes a reflection of your company’s evolution.
The first filings show your early vision. Later divisionals capture refinements, improvements, and expansions. Together, they tell the story of your innovation journey in a legally recognized way.
That’s something competitors can’t copy. Even if they build something similar, your well-structured patent family makes it clear that you got there first—and that your technology is protected from every angle.
With PowerPatent, you don’t just end up with a stack of documents. You end up with a dynamic, connected system of protection that grows as you do.
The Future of Smart Patent Protection
The future of patents is about intelligence and alignment. It’s about giving founders the ability to protect what matters most without slowing down their momentum. Divisionals, when managed properly, are a key part of that vision.
PowerPatent was built to make this process seamless—to help you move from scattered filings to an integrated IP strategy that actually drives business value.
Whether you’re handling your first unity objection or planning a multi-branch patent family, PowerPatent gives you the visibility, control, and confidence you need to do it right.
The goal isn’t just to file more patents—it’s to file smarter patents that work together to secure your company’s future.
So as you think about your next big product launch or technology milestone, take a moment to review your IP foundation.
Ask yourself whether every valuable part of your invention is protected, or whether a divisional could help lock in that protection.
Because when it comes to innovation, the difference between staying ahead and falling behind often comes down to how you protect what you’ve built.
And with PowerPatent, that process becomes faster, smarter, and entirely within your control.
Wrapping It Up
Every startup begins with a spark—an idea that’s bold, original, and worth protecting. But real protection doesn’t stop with one patent filing. It’s built over time, layer by layer, as your invention grows and evolves. Divisionals are how you keep that protection alive.
