Request for Continued Examination

After submitting a patent application to the USPTO, an assigned patent examiner will eventually evaluate the application and decide to either outright accept it or file some kind of office action against it. Rejection of an application, depending on the current situation, requires the applicant to take certain actions, such as responding to the examiner, appealing an examiner’s decision, or filing a request for continued examination. Responding to an examiner, which is essentially negotiating the terms of the patent application, may eventually trigger the issuing of a final rejection notice on the application. The inventor then has the choice of filing a request for continued examination, whereby, in return for the payment of additional filing fees, the patent examination process will start anew with usually the same patent examiner.