Prior Art Question

Dear Rich: I am testament to the quality of Pressman's Book “Patent it Yourself.” I submitted my patent application in 2013 and received my first Office Action Nov 14, 2013.  I submited an Amendment to my Claims, prompting a Second Office Action on June 26, 2014. I spoke with my examiner and submited Amendment B to by Claims, according to the very favorable verbal discussion with examiner. I just recently received a notice that my application was published Sept. 11, 2014. I am now expecting that my claim is to be allowed at some point. Which finally brings me to my question: If I would like to patent my invention for another use but I had mentioned that use in my previous patent application that was just published, is it too late for me to submit another application for a different use of the same invention or can my remarks about that particular use in the earlier application constitute prior art now that I have changed my mind and would like to pursue this "other" use of my invention? We spoke to Patent It Yourself author David Pressman who believes that you should seek out a patent attorney and explain the full facts of your case. Pressman did note the following, however.
Disclosing the improvement. When an improvement is made to an invention, the applicant can cover it by (a) the existing application if the claims are broad enough and the improvement is disclosed in the specification, (b) a CIP (Continuation-in-Part application) if they have to add new matter to the specification to support the new claims, or (c) a continuation application if the improvement is already supported by the specification, or (d) an independent new application if they have to add new matter to the specification to support the claims. In case (d) the independent application’s claims should be patentable over anything that was published previously and any patent that was filed before the filing date of the independent application.

Can I Patent Invention Based on Previous Invention?

Dear Rich: I have come up with an idea and did a patent search to see if there was anything similar to what my idea was.  There was something similar, but not exactly.  The patent for that item expired in 2003 after unanswered payment requests.  The original date was 1991 on the patent.  So, if I submit a request for my idea, even though different in several ways, but some similar thoughts, will I get rejected? If what you're claiming has already been invented (the prior art), then your invention is not novel and will not be awarded a patent. But if you have modified a previously patented device, then you may be able to obtain a patent on your improvement or modification --  for example, if you invented a paper clip that changes color depending on how many sheets of paper it is holding, you could patent your process for color adjustment resulting from the clip's resistance (though not the basic paper clip invention). This article provides more details on improvement and "new use" patents.