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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style",serif">A client received an Office Action this morning. In addition to copies of the 1449s previously submitted by the client in this application and an 892 with references cited
by the examiner in the Office Action, the IFW includes a copy of a patent application publication that is not mentioned in the Office Action, not contained in the 892, and not disclosed in any 1449. There are no foreign related applications to this U.S. application,
so there’s no ISR or search report from any non-USPTO office. The Doc code is “REF.OTHER,” which is described in the PTO’s Document Description List as “Submission of US Patent, US Application documentation or International or Foreign Search Reports.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<ol style="margin-top:0in" start="1" type="1">
<li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style",serif">Since the reference isn’t listed in either an 892, a 1449, or even mentioned in the Office Action, was it considered
by the examiner? Filing an IDS just to be sure it’s correctly on the record seems absurd, but I’m uncomfortable not doing one.<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style",serif">Any idea why the examiner would list a reference like that? There is a Search Notes page in the IFW, but there is
no search data in any field, so there’s not even an indication of what was searched or how.<o:p></o:p></span></li></ol>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style",serif;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:ZH-CN">Best regards,<br>
<b>Richard A. Schafer | Schafer IP Law</b></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:ZH-CN"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style",serif;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:ZH-CN">P.O. Box 230081 | Houston, TX 77223<br>
M: 832.283.6564 | </span><a href="mailto:richard@schafer-ip.com"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style",serif;color:#0563C1;mso-ligatures:none">richard@schafer-ip.com</span></a><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style",serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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