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

[Carl Oppedahl]

Oh yes RCEs.

As recently as a few weeks ago, it seemed that the LIEs pretty 
consistently would turn around an RCE within two business days. But yes 
I went and looked and the most recent RCE that we filed took seven days 
to reach the Examiner.

Thank you for posting.

On 10/9/2025 9:07 AM, Julie Eslick wrote:
>
>
> 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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