What happens to non-admitted amendments during an appeal?

Non-admitted amendments are those changes to a patent application that have not been formally accepted by the examining authority. When an appeal is initiated, the scope of the appeal is generally limited to the record established during the examination process, which does not include non-admitted amendments.

The reason non-admitted amendments cannot be included in the appeal brief is that the appeal record is strictly confined to what was presented and accepted during the examination phase. Allowing non-admitted amendments would enable applicants to introduce new evidence or arguments, which contravenes the purpose of the appeal process—that is, to review the decision based on the existing record rather than expanding it with potentially unexamined material.

Therefore, understanding that amendments which have not been formally admitted cannot be brought into the appeal process clarifies why the selected answer correctly represents the rules surrounding the handling of these amendments during an appeal.