The Red Queen’s Race

A case showed up on my Expedited docket Friday. I thought it might qualify for swift action on my part, so I opened it, and it turned out to be a Board of Patent Appeals decision affirming my rejection of a case. These used to go to my Special Amended docket, but some changes have been made, so now I don’t have one, only Amended and Expedited. I still have an amendment on my Amended docket, so I’m up to a total of two. (The applicant basically gets two months to decide whether and how to respond to the Board decision.)

I finished an Office Action on a Regular New case Wednesday, in time to be counted for the previous Fiscal Year, and now I’ve been working on my current oldest Regular New.

Finally, I’ve been transferred to a different Art Unit, working on the same kind of art. My old Art Unit was quite large, so I was shifted elsewhere. I know my new Supervisory Patent Examiner, and I think he’s a good guy.