Patent Guide: Restriction Requirement

Restriction requirements are where you are claiming two different inventions in the same application. For example, if your claim 1 is for “method of creating ball lightning” and your claim 2 is for “eating with a spork,” no reasonable examiner at the U.S. Patent Office is going to examine both those claims. They’ll give you a “restriction requirement,” often for simply claiming a method and device in the same application.

We then rebut this with arguments to try to get all the claims examined – many restriction requirements issued are subpar though keeping the examiner happy is often wiser than going over their head by filing a petition to have their work reviewed.

Typically, we have to file the application again as a “continuation” to get the other claims examined if the examiner will not rejoin the claims.