Thank you. I just thought, in the "final" they say some small things need editing to be allowable, and say why they are rejecting the other claims, which is based on a prior art reference that to me obviously "teaches away" from the present invention (I have shown this several times before with other ones and I was right) and really in my mind the main problem is that this is truly novel to the point the examiners don't really grasp it yet (my opinion).
The main question is, can I answer the "final", make the small edits, but also argue why the prior art doesn't apply to the other rejected claims and leave those claims in the response too (with some small edits they want anyway)? Then would they look those arguments over and if they still don't like them, they would let me know (and why) within time and at that point I could still decide to do the RCE or like you said continuation or maybe just take what I can get? (my choices if I think their reasons are valid or not)
It seems to me they are not even allowing me to show them why the prior art doesn't apply, which they say is what they are depending on mostly to reject the other claims and basically they think are right and that's it, their ears are shut.
The procedure is what I am having problems with, if I simply respond to the "final" will they get back to me shortly within time to let me do a RCE or something or is it over, done and I lost the entire thing?
Or if I fix the small edits they are asking for and they allow that one claim and not the others again, it goes to "issuance"?, can I then not pay the issuance but go to RCE or continuation?
Another way to look at it maybe is do they give you a period of time after you answer a "final", like the 3 months they always seem to give, to then file a RCE to argue further their rejection of the other claims even after they say all is OK with the first one and is ready to issue.
Also, another search is fine with me (with RCE), if they can find a actual valid prior art that really applies, someone later could also find that prior art, challenge the patent using it and the patent would not be worth the paper it's printed on, right? I would like it to be solid and complete as possible now, not later.
And with a continuation they would do another search anyway, so I don't see why I should be worried about that. Either it's novel or not.
Is there a page/writeup on your site that talks in really good detail about the continuation things you can do? It seems there are 2 or 3 types and I would like to know the "downfalls" of each of them like when you said I would have two patents and two maintenance fees in the future but one type seems to not go to two patents or I don't understand.
And one type says something like the filing date is when you file the continuation, so do they get to start throwing prior art at me from up to Jan 2022 for those claims?
Do you look over the file "wrapper" (public info USPTO) of a patent and maybe take over/ review / help or file things properly after I write most of it, with a basket case like this?
And really, thanks for your help.