[Patentpractice] What to do when examiner does not examine elected claims

[Alan Taboada]

All -

We came across an odd situation recently where an examiner imposed a restriction requirement and we responded by electing one gorupd of claims as required.
However, the way the examiner split the claims, there was a broad group of claims and a narrower group of claims.
We elected the narrower claims, and indicated that the groader claims were generic to the narrower claims.
In the first office action, the examiner did not examine the narrower, elected claims, but only the broader generic claims.
We did not realize this until close to the three months deadline so we responded to the office action, but pointed this error out and asked for all claims to be examined.
We have now just received a final office action where the examiner indicates that the elected claims are not "properly" identified as "withdrawn" and still are not examined.

I don't think this is a petition to the director type situation, because we are not petitioning the restriction per se.
I spoke to the examiner before and do not think he will change his mind, although I do plan on setting up an interview with him and his supervisor to discuss.
Alternately, I could just call his supervisor.

Has anybody come across this situation before and if so, how did you handle it?
If not, does anything jump out as a best way forward?

Thanks for any insight.

Best regards,

Alan
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