The Patent Examiner will send a Non Final Office Action if he has objections on an applied Patent. If the office action is responded by the applicant the examiner may send one or more Non Final Office Actions. The non final office actions indicate that the Examiner is still reviewing and have not decided to finalize the issue. During this time the applicant can make amendments in the applied patent as a matter of right. After the patent examiner finalize his findings he will send a Final Office Action. The final office action stops applicant to make amendments with exception of examiner’s permission.
If a response to a non final office action is filed by the applicant within 6 months then he has to do nothing more and the response alone will keep the application pending and under prosecution. However if it is a final office action then the applicant is required to appeal or file a Request for Continued Examination (RCE) to keep the case alive and pending for further prosecution.
The primary difference between “non-final” and “final” office actions is twofold:
- A Non Final Office Action does not stop further prosecution whereas Final Office Action does not carry any such scope.
- A Non Final Office Action does not require any payment of fee for further prosecution whereas Final Office Action requires paying fee in order to continue prosecuting the application before the examiner.
Intellectual Property Logium provides services for responding a final patent office action. We advise, draft and file the reply to examiner objections and response to final office action.
