After the patent application is filed with the USPTO, a patent examining attorney is assigned to your patent application. The examiner will review your application first to determine if all of the required formalities are met, then second to determine if your application is novel in view of the existing patent applications and registrations. If the examiner finds a reason to object or reject your application, he will issue what is called an Office Action rejection.
The first office action is not received for at least several months after the filing of the patent application, and more typically well over a year from the filing date depending upon the backlog of the USPTO and the efficiency of the particular examiner assigned to your application.
As your lawyer, all Office Actions will go directly to our office for our review. We will review the Office Action and contact you to discuss the scope of the rejection and how we intend to overcome the rejection if retained by you. Office Actions are fairly common and you should at a minimum expect at least one Office Action especially for utility patent applications. We are very successful in overcoming the rejections by either drafting arguments against the examiners rejections, or by amending the application and claims to overcome the rejection. In some cases, we have found that conducting a telephonic interview with the examiner to be very useful to overcome rejections, particularly with the second Office Action or Final Office Actions.
Even if we have not drafted your original patent application, feel free to call our office for a quote for our response to your office action.