Many patent practitioners have experienced the benefits of
examiner interviews in achieving compact patent prosecution.
Examiner interviews allow practitioners and examiners to discuss
subtle but sometimes significant technical distinctions between
their claimed invention and prior art, which is often difficult to
articulate on paper. Examiner interviews also allow
practitioners and examiners to discuss proposed claim amendments,
and allow practitioners to gain oftentimes valuable insight into
the examiners' interpretation of their claimed invention and
the prior art. And, not to be overlooked, examiner interviews
can allow practitioners to build rapport with examiners.
Notwithstanding the benefits, traditional means of scheduling
examiner interviews have proven tedious. Scheduling
interviews with examiners by phone often results in a game of phone
tag, while attempting to schedule using internet resources e.g.,
via email or a meeting invitation using
