MPEP Section 1452, Request for Continued Examination of Reissue Application

Executive summary:

This document contains Section 1452 ("Request for Continued Examination of Reissue Application") of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (the "M.P.E.P."), Eighth Edition, Eighth Revision (July 2010). This page was last updated in January 2011. You may return to the section index to find a particular section. Alternatively, you may search the MPEP using the search box that appears on the left side of every page of BitLaw--you may restrict your search to the MPEP on the search results page.

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1452 Request for Continued Examination of Reissue Application [R-7]

A request for continued examination (RCE) under 37 CFR 1.114 is available for a reissue application. Effective May 29, 2000, an applicant in a reissue application may file a request for continued examination of the reissue application, if the reissue application was filed on or after June 8, 1995. This applies even where the application, which resulted in the original patent, was filed **>before< June 8, 1995.

An RCE continues the prosecution of the existing reissue application and is not a filing of a new reissue application. Thus, the filing of an RCE will not be announced in the Official Gazette. Additionally, if a reissue application is merged with a reexamination proceeding (see MPEP § 1449.01), the filing of an RCE will not dissolve the merger, *>because< the reissue application does not become abandoned. >The Office, however, may choose to dissolve the merger based on the individual facts and circumstances of the case, e.g., to promote the statutorily mandated requirement for special dispatch in reexamination.<