ndrosen

I didn’t get any amendments this week, so I’m still at zero amendments.

I finished and posted a first action on one of my Regular New cases, and I’ve started work on another Regular New.

It’s the end of the first biweek of the third quarter, and I will need to get my production up in order to have a satisfactory quarter. It never ends.

This past week, two new amendments showed up, so I now have three amendments on my Amended docket.

I didn’t do much with any of these amendments, but I did post an Office Action on my oldest Regular New application Monday. I also found two cases assigned to my Special New docket, and last night, I finished and posted an Office Action on the higher priority one of them. This brings the second quarter to a successful close, in the sense that my production for the second quarter is good, and my production for the combined first and second quarters, the first half of Fiscal Year 2024, is adequate to let me keep my job.

This called for a bit of a celebration, so last night I ate dinner, which comprised black bean chili with guacamole (I had made it Wednesday evening, and this was the third and final serving of it), a salad, and then thin mint Girl Scout cookies. In celebration, I poured a glass of tawny port (almost the last of the bottle, which I have had for years), and drank that as a dessert wine. I wonder what some well-to-do eighteenth or nineteenth century Englishman would have thought of port wine with Girl Scout cookies.

I started the week with three amendments on my Amended docket; I did Office Actions on two of them, and am down to one amendment. Two items appeared on my Expedited docket, one of them an internal matter, pointing out an error in one of my Office Actions, and the other an After Final amendment, in which a patent agent claimed that I had erred in finding a set of claims unpatentable, at least in their current form. I responded to both, and have nothing left on my Expedited docket.

I used the expression “patent agent;” a patent enrolled agent is someone who is not a patent attorney, and cannot represent you in court, but is qualified to represent an inventor before the Patent Office, by drawing up an application, amending claims, and arguing with patent examiners like me.

On Saturday the ninth of March, I finished an Office Action on my oldest Regular New application for the previous biweek. I have been working on my current oldest Regular New case, and hope to get out an Office Action Monday.

Earlier this week, an After Final amendment appeared on my Expedited docket, and so I dealt with that before moving on to other applications. I currently have no amendments of any kind.

I began the week with two oldest Regular New applications, one of them a Request for Continued Examination case, and the other an entirely new case. I have finished an Office Action on the RCE application, and have been working on the other oldest Regular New.

There were no non-RCE amendments this week, so I’m still at zero amendments on my Amended docket, but two applicants filed Requests for Continued Examination, which went to my Regular New docket, so I had an oldest non-RCE Regular New, and an oldest RCE Regular New case this week.

I finished Office Actions on both of them. I also did a minor Office Action on yet another Regular New, that one being a written restriction requirement, which means that I told the applicant, “You have two inventions here, and searching both would be an unreasonable burden on the examiner, so choose which one you want examined this time.” Whichever the applicant doesn’t choose now, he can file a divisional application on.

I have also started searching for prior art relevant to yet another Regular New application, but haven’t gotten very far with it.

No amendments appeared this week, so I’m still at one amendment on my Amended docket. I did do further work on the case, and called the patent attorney to discuss further amending the claims to, let us hope, make them allowable. He said that he would discuss my proposal with his client; so far, I haven’t heard back from him.

I finished an Office Action on my oldest Regular New case, and then I started on another Regular New application. We’ll see how much more I can do this weekend and next week.

Early in the week, I wrote and posted an Office Action on the only amendment I had at the time. On Friday, another amendment appeared on my Amended docket, so I’m back to one amendment.

I’ve been working on my oldest Regular New application, but haven’t yet finished the Office Action.

This week, another amendment was processed and placed in my Amended docket, so I’m up to two amendments.

I finished a first Office Action on my oldest Regular New application, and I have also worked on a different Regular New case. I was hoping to finish that this week, but Cheops’ Law still applies: nothing is ever finished on time or within the budget.

No amendments appeared this week, so I’m still at zero amendments.

A case was assigned to my Special New docket, so I worked on that, and posted an Office Action. Then I started work on my oldest Regular New application, although I haven’t finished it. After that, I hope to return to a Regular New case that I was working on earlier, mostly before I found out about the Special New, so if all goes well, the first biweek of the second quarter (beginning December 17) may be fairly productive.

An after-final amendment appeared on my Expedited docket, and I responded to it appropriately. At least, I think that my response was appropriate, although the patent attorney and his client may be inclined to disagree. I now have nothing on my Amended or Expedited dockets.

I finished an Office Action on my one Request for Continued Examination case, which was on my Regular New docket, and I have put in work on my oldest (non-RCE) Regular New application.

There is one week left in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2024, and my production is not where I want it to be. I’ve been busy, which is one reason for not posting lately about anything except my progress at work. I will mention that December 5 was the ninetieth anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition, which celebrated by drinking a small cup of wine with dinner. It was a Portuguese red, although a white wine might have been a better match for Tuesday’s dinner.