[Patentpractice] taking much longer for a response to a non-final office action to get entered and forwarded to the Examiner?

[Julie Eslick]

We filed a Response/RCE on October 1 and as of yesterday it still had not been entered.  Status was still "Final Rejection mailed".


Julie A. Eslick 
IP Paralegal Specialist
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP - Phoenix, AZ USA
T: +1 602 364 7028
julie.eslick at bclplaw.com




-----Original Message-----
From: Patentpractice <patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> On Behalf Of Carl Oppedahl via Patentpractice
Sent: Thursday, October 9, 2025 2:37 AM
To: For patent practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal advice. <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: Carl Oppedahl <carl at oppedahl.com>
Subject: [Patentpractice] taking much longer for a response to a non-final office action to get entered and forwarded to the Examiner?

Hello folks.  Is it just me, or is it recently taking much longer for a response to a non-final office action to get entered and forwarded to the Examiner?

And not just responses to non-final office actions?

Also taking much longer for a response to a final office action to get entered and forwarded to the Examiner?

In a recent case in Tech Center 2900, I filed a response on September 25 and it did not get forwarded to the Examiner until October 8.  It took
13 days to get forwarded.

In other recent cases in other Tech Centers, I have seen forwarding delays of 7 to 10 days.

I fear that this is getting to be the new normal.

In the old days it was commonplace that a response would get forwarded to the Examiner promptly -- within two or three days. Sometimes it would only take one day.

The job title of the people who do this "entering and forwarding" is LIE
-- legal instruments examiner.

I can imagine that one factor explaining the new delays might be due to September 30 having passed and some LIEs who accepted the "fork in the road" are now gone.  Although I guess many of the USPTO people who accepted the "fork in the road" would have ceased work long before September 30.

I can imagine that this new long delay in forwarding to the Examiner might be different from one Tech Center to the next.  One Tech Center might have lost more LIEs than another.

Is it just me, or have others also been seeing new delays in forwarding to the Examiner?

Carl

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