GLOSSARY

Abandonment: When an applicant stops pursuing a patent through a particular patent application. Abandonment of an application may be done by filing a document in the Patent Office expressly stating that the application is being abandoned, or by not responding to a communication from the Patent Office regarding the patent application within a specified time limit defined by law or by Patent Office rules.

Claim limitations: Part of the wording of a claim that describes some portion of the overall invention for which a patent is being sought.

Copending applications: Two or more patent applications that at a particular point in time have been filed in the Patent Office but have not been issued as patents. They are simultaneously pending.

Divisional application: A type of continuing application of an originally filed “parent” application that claims an invention different from that of the parent application. A patentably distinct invention is claimed in the divisional application.

Independent claim: A claim that does not reference and include the limitations of any other claim. It stands alone.

Nonelected invention: An invention for which the claims describing it were not “elected,” i.e. chosen for examination in the response to a previous requirement for restriction by the Patent Office.

Patentably indistinct claims: Claims that, although they may be worded differently, describe the same invention.

Request for continued examination (RCE): A document that may be filed in the Patent Office, along with payment of a fee, that requests that the office reopen prosecution of the patent application and reconsider the application. A submission of claim amendments, arguments, or other additional information thought to be material to patentability must be submitted with the RCE.

Requirement for restriction: A ruling by the Patent Office that an application contains claims for more than one invention, and that the claims to be examined shall be restricted to those describing only one of the inventions. The applicant is required to elect the particular set of claims and invention to be examined.