MPEP SECTION SUMMARY

Election may be made in ways other than by explicitly or expressly identifying the elected invention or in reply to a requirement.

MPEP SECTION SUMMARY

Where claims to another invention are properly added and entered in the application before the earlier of the mailing of a first restriction requirement or the mailing of a first Office action on the merits, those claims, along with the ones presented upon filing the application, will be considered originally presented claims for purposes of restriction only.

The claims originally presented and acted upon by the Office on their merits determine the invention elected by an applicant in the application, and in any request for continued examination (RCE) filed for the application.

MPEP SECTION SUMMARY

Where only generic claims are first presented and prosecuted in an application in which no election of a single species of that genus has been required, and applicant later presents species claims to two or more independent or distinct species of the invention, the examiner may require applicant to elect a single species.

MPEP SECTION SUMMARY

Where applicant claims two or more independent or distinct inventions and as a result of amendment to the claims, he or she cancels the claims to one or more of such inventions, leaving claims to one invention, and such claims are acted upon by the examiner, the claimed invention thus acted upon is elected.

MPEP SECTION SUMMARY

If applicant’s reply to a requirement for restriction does not expressly state the invention elected, but cancels claims to all but one of the inventions, the remaining invention will be deemed to be the elected invention.