Change in USPTO Processing of RCEs Likely to Significantly Delay Prosecution

摘要

On November 15, 2009, the USPTO will implement a critical revision to internal procedures that places newly filed requests for continued examination (RCEs) on an examiner's "special new" docket instead of his/her "amended" docket. This change, coupled with vaunted overhauls to the U.S.P.T.O.'s count system (which is used to assess examiner productivity) that will give examiners less credit for examining RCEs, could result in significant prosecution delays after an RCE is filed.