What happens to non-admitted amendments during an appeal?

During an appeal process at the USPTO, non-admitted amendments refer to changes or modifications to a patent application that were not acknowledged or accepted by the patent examiner prior to the appeal. It is essential to understand that these amendments cannot be submitted for consideration in the appeal brief itself. This stems from the established procedural rules of patent appeals, which maintain that only the information and arguments that were present and part of the record during the examination phase can be considered by the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences.

In a scenario where an applicant wishes to address issues raised in the appeal, they typically would need to rely on the original claims and the arguments provided during the prosecution phase of the application. Any attempts to include non-admitted amendments in the appeal brief would not be accepted, preserving the integrity of the evidence and decisions made by the examiner before the appeal.

While the other options touch upon relevant aspects of the patent process, they do not accurately convey the specific restriction placed on non-admitted amendments during an appeal. Therefore, acknowledging that these amendments cannot be part of the appeal brief aligns with the procedural norms established by the USPTO.