<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div>Without deep thought and research, you might have a plausible case if you're willing to go to federal Court. (But I'd need to research it much deeper to know whether you have a strong case or a weak one.) The PTO's use of strategic delay in deciding petitions is truly beyond the pale, and you might well have a plausible claim.</div><div><br></div><div>The PTO's position is that <i>In re Jung </i>abs<font size="2" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">olves the PTO of the obligation of
5 U.S.C. § 555(e) to give you a useful explanation and <i>bona fide</i> response to your traverse. Contrast </font><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/555" target="_blank">https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/555</a> with <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1519848467837385132" target="_blank">https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1519848467837385132</a> (Jung is particularly galling -- while the attorneys were working on the brief, I told them that
35 U.S.C. § 132 wouldn't get them where they needed to go, look at
<font size="2" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"> § 555</font> instead. They went with
§ 132. And lost. Oh well.)</div><div><br></div><div>Theoretically, you could request a
§ 1.136(b) extension. You have arguably "prosecuted the application" in a statutory sense, but how likely do you think it is that the PTO will buy that? A court maybe (I don't know how that one would come out). But the PTO only over dead bodies.<br></div><div><br></div><div>In the real world, where bullying goes unpunished because it generates revenue for the PTO and the PTO knows that court review will cost you six figures, the practical reality is that you're stuck. Appeal.<br>
</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Jan 23, 2025 at 12:24\u202fPM steve--- via Patentpractice <<a href="mailto:patentpractice@oppedahl-lists.com" target="_blank">patentpractice@oppedahl-lists.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div><div lang="EN-US"><div><p class="MsoNormal">Dear Group:<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">I ask your advice, both consensus and obscure, regarding action based on the below. I am tending toward a Notice of Appeal, preappeal conference request, and usurious extension of time. <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">The subject case had a Final office action issued 7/26/2024. On 9/26/2024, I filed both an after final response and a petition to withdraw finality. An advisory action was issued 10/1/2024, and a Petition Decision was mail 10/23/2024. <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">The petition was filed because a dependent claim was amended after non-final rejection, and the Examiner in the final rejection did not actually consider the effect of the amendment. This became critical when that same dependent claim was sought to be added to the independent claim.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">A Request for Reconsideration of the dismissal of the Petition was filed 10/24/2024. In this request for rehearing, a key sentence was \u201cWhile the issues of the claim admittedly changed, and the Examiner withdrew the prior rejections of claims 1-20, the final rejection did not, other than parroting the claim language, actually consider and analyze the differences in claim 4 before and after the amendment.\u201d The conclusion states:<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in;text-indent:0.5in">Given that the language of the rejection explicitly fails to support the rejection, it is disingenuous for the Director to state \u201cAs detailed above, the limitation of claim 4 reciting \u2018wherein at least two of the plurality of wearable or implantable sensors sense the same physiological condition\u2019 was <b><i>discussed</i></b> by the examiner as being taught in Khachaturian in the Final Office action dated 26 July 2024 in the second paragraph on page 5.\u201d While the issue may have been nominally \u201cdiscussed\u201d, that is not the threshold required to sustain a final rejection according to 35 U.S.C. § 132(a) (\u201c\u2026\u201d) and 37 C.F.R. § 1.104 (\u201c\u2026\u201d).<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">The request for rehearing was routed to the Office of Petitions, and based on a discussion, has not even been docketed to a petitions examiner, with the statutory deadline looming this week. There is thus no possibility that the petition will be decided before expiration of the statutory period. <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Meanwhile, since filing of the request for reconsideration, the Examiner tells me that she is prohibited from acting on my outstanding second submission after final rejection with a timely filed AFCP 2.0 request, due to a policy that stays all other USPTO action until the petition is decided.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Suggestions for action?<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">Very truly yours,</span><span style="font-size:11pt;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">Steven M. Hoffberg<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">Hoffberg & Associates<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">29 Buckout Road<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">West Harrison, NY 10604<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">(914) 949-2300 tel<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">(845) 625-2547 fax<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><a href="mailto:steve@hoffberglaw.com" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">steve@hoffberglaw.com</span></a><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/hoffberg/" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">https://www.linkedin.com/in/hoffberg/</span></a><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;background:white">Emails and attachments received from us may be confidential and/or protected by the attorney-client privilege, as attorney work-product or based on other privileges or provisions of law. 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