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Good morning -
I have a pending non-provisional U.S. patent application. First office action is estimated in 5-6 months.
I would like to file a preliminary amendment to add new claims. 37 CFR 1.115 states that preliminary amendments may be disapproved in certain cases.
Is it common for preliminary amendments to be disapproved? Could this happen even if my first office action is half a year away?
Thank you.
It is very unlikely to be disallowed unless the examiner has already picked up the case and started searching. In that case, they would continue and generate an office action responsive to the claims-as-filed. Just like it says in 37 CFR 1.115 2 (i).
