PATENT APPLICATION AMENDMENT
The United States Patent and Trademark office will issue an "Action"
setting forth their finds as to patentability and, in the case the
finding is negative, will require the Applicant to file a "Response."
Usually, after one or two Responses, outstanding issues are
resolved as to the form of the claims and the scope of protection.
Patent application prosecution is dependent upon the
complexity of the rejection, the reasonableness of the Examiner, the
closeness of the prior art as compared to the scope of patent protection
desired by applicant, and the quality of the applicant's comments for
responding to the Examiner. The period of prosecution, and the
interval over which these added costs are incurred, averages one to
two years.
After allowance, and upon payment of issuance fees, the application
issues into a patent.
Copyright 1995 Michael J. Colitz, Jr.