This section provides a brief overview of rejections based on prior art. For instance, prior art rejections should ordinarily be confined strictly to the best available art. It covers how to handle reliance on abstracts and foreign language documents in support of a rejection. Essentially, when an abstract is used to support a rejection, the evidence relied upon is the facts contained in the abstract, not additional facts that may be contained in the underlying full text document. In addition, this section covers reliance on admitted prior art in support of a rejection.

This section also briefly covers the distinction between 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103. Essentially, the distinction between rejections based on 35 U.S.C. 102 include those where the claim is anticipated by the reference. No question of obviousness is present. In a rejection based on 35 U.S.C. 103, the reference teachings must somehow be modified in order to meet the claims. Lastly, this section includes a discussion on determining the effective filing date of a claimed invention.

• Review Ed9 10.2019: 706.02

Nonprovisional applications that are accepted as complete applications by the USPTO will be assigned for examination. There are many different departments handling different classes of inventions (i.e., biotech, chemical, mechanical, etc.). Applications will be further classified to an individual examiner who will examine the application on a first come, first serve basis. Certain departments are so backed up that it may take well over a year (and in many instances much longer) for the applicant to receive just the first Office action. This section discusses petitions to make special, the accelerated examination program, and prioritized examination, all of which can be used to speed up the examination of an application.

• Review Ed9 10.2019: 708

By filing a petition to make special, the examination process for the application will be considerably sped up. This section covers details of a petition to make special. The specific instances where petitions to make special may be used include; the applicant's health, applicant's age, environmental quality, energy, and inventions for countering terrorism. Each of these is discussed along with the handling of petitions to make special or requests for advancement of examination.

• Review Ed9 10.2019: 708.02