Amendments to Application
Following are some details concerning amendments to the application:
The applicant may amend before or after the first examination and action as specified in the rules, or when and as specifically required by the examiner.
After final rejection or action, amendments may be made canceling claims or complying with any requirement of form which has been made but the admission of any such amendment or its refusal, and any proceedings relative thereto, shall not operate to relieve the application from its condition as subject to appeal or to save it from abandonment.
If amendments touching the merits of the application are presented after final rejection, or after appeal has been taken, or when such amendment might not otherwise be proper, they may be admitted upon a showing of good and sufficient reasons why they are necessary and were not earlier presented.
No amendment can be made as a matter of right in appealed cases. After decision on appeal, amendments can only be made as provided in the rules.
The specifications, claims, and drawing must be amended and revised when required, to correct inaccuracies of description and definition or unnecessary words, and to secure correspondence between the claims, the description, and the drawing.
All amendments of the drawings or specifications, and all additions thereto must not include new matter beyond the original disclosure. Matter not found in either, involving a departure from or an addition to the original disclosure, cannot be added to the application even though supported by a supplemental oath or declaration, and can be shown or claimed only in a separate application.
The claims may be amended by canceling particular claims, by presenting new claims, or by amending the language of particular claims (such amended claims being in effect new claims). In presenting new or amended claims, the applicant must point out how they avoid any reference or ground rejection of record which may be pertinent.
Erasures, additions, insertions, or alterations of the papers and records must not be made by the applicant. Amendments are made by filing a paper, directing or requesting that specified changes or additions be made. The exact word or words to be stricken out or inserted in the application must be specified and the precise point indicated where the deletion or insertion is to be made.
Amendments are “entered” by the Office by making the proposed deletions by drawing a line in red ink through the word or words canceled and by making the proposed substitutions or insertions in red ink. Small insertions are written in at the designated place and larger insertions are indicated by reference.
No change in the drawing may be made except by permission of the Office. Changes in the construction shown in any drawing may be made only by submitting new drawings. A sketch in permanent ink showing proposed changes, to become part of the record, must be filed for approval by the Office before the new drawings are filed. The paper requesting amendments to the drawing should be separate from other papers.
If the number or nature of the amendments render it difficult to consider the case, or to arrange the papers for printing or copying, the examiner may require the entire specification or claims, or any part thereof, to be rewritten.
The original numbering of the claims must be preserved throughout the prosecution. When claims are canceled, the remaining claims must not be renumbered. When claims are added by amendment orsubstituted for canceled claims, they must be numbered by the applicant consecutively beginning with the number next following the highest numbered claim previously presented. When the application is ready for allowance, the examiner, if necessary, will renumber the claims consecutively in the order in which they appear or in such order as may have been requested by applicant.