MPEP Section 818, Election and Reply

Executive summary:

This document contains Section 818 ("Election and Reply") 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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818 Election and Reply [R-3]

Election is the designation of the particular one of two or more disclosed inventions that will be prosecuted in the application.

A reply should be made to each point raised by the examiner's action, and may include a traverse or compliance.

A traverse of a requirement to restrict is a statement of the reasons upon which the applicant relies for his or her conclusion that the requirement is in error.

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Where a rejection or objection is included with a restriction requirement, applicant, besides making a proper election must also distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the examiner's rejection or objection. See 37 CFR 1.111.