Experienced agents of American patent agencies will find that the first OA is "non-final OA" and the second OA is usually "final OA". The main reason for this situation is that the US Patent and Trademark Office stipulates that the examiner can only record the examination workload for him after issuing the final OA. This means that once the conditions for issuing the final OA are met, the examiner will not hesitate to issue the final OA. So, what are the conditions for releasing the final OA?
In fact, the final OA may not be released after the first OA. The Patent Examination Procedure Manual of the United States stipulates that only when the prescribed conditions are met can the examiner issue the final OA. Specifically, when one of the following three situations is met, the examiner is allowed to issue the final OA:
1. In the reply to the non-final OA, the applicant only argued and did not modify its claim. If the examiner does not accept this argument and insists on its refusal, the final OA can be issued;
2. After issuing a non-final OA, the applicant submits an IDS (Information Disclosure Statement), and the examiner can issue a final OA when he intends to change the reason for rejection to this IDS;
3. For non-final OA, if the applicant modifies the claim, the examiner can issue the final OA, and in the final OA, the examiner can change the applicable law or modify the rejection opinion.
Therefore, according to the conditions that allow the final OA to be issued, the applicant can consider how to formulate a strategy to reply to the non-final OA, and try to avoid falling into the above three situations, so as to avoid receiving the final OA, which can save the applicant's application cost to some extent.