[Patentpractice] A change in rules for Examiners?

[Timothy Snowden]

Thank you for posting this -- together with Carl's blog article on the 
phones, and the new Commerce Secretary's stated intent to reduce 
backlog, it inspired a post: 
https://definitivepatents.com/2025/03/12/recent-uspto-changes-point-to-increased-examination-difficulty/

On 3/11/2025 1:46 PM, Judith S via Patentpractice wrote:
> I saw this on the Patent Examiner reddit, and thought it was worth 
> sharing:
>
> https://www.reddit.com/r/patentexaminer/comments/1j8ear1/today_sucked/
>
> Original Poster said:
>
> Junior here. I just need to vent. I don’t understand how I’m supposed 
> to do my job when I have no one to help me. Struggled all day with a 
> search and was told SCEs can no longer help. Need to transfer some 
> cases, not sure where they should go. SPE was unavailable because they 
> were trying to figure out their RTO, but they don’t know my art 
> anyway. Struggled with claim interpretations that I would usually ask 
> about. Spent a lot of time stuck and frustrated. I do not blame the 
> primaries for not helping, and I hope they continue to hold the line. 
> But man, this really f-ing sucks. I care about my work, and I don’t 
> want to put out shitty actions.
>
> But hey, at least my phone wasn’t working so I didn’t have to field 
> any calls.
>
> Various commenters, many of whom appear to be examiners:
>
> "I was told all SCE (Search and Classification Examiners) time was 
> gone, for everyone."
>
> "we were explicitly told by our SPE to not ask primaries questions, 
> and that our AU was cut to zero other time."
>
> Judith
>
>
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