MPEP Section 818, Election and Reply

Executive summary:

This document contains one section of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (the "M.P.E.P."), Eighth Edition, Fifth Revision (August 2006). This page was last updated in July 2007. You may return to the section index to find a particular section. Alternatively, you may search the MPEP use the search box that appears on the bottom of every page of BitLaw--be sure to restrict your search to the MPEP in the pop-up list.

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818 Election and Reply

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.

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.