I've received a letter from USPTO telling that the patent application contains two distinct groups of claims: 1-13, and 14. The examiner marked all 14 claims as "restricted", and now I'm unsure how to proceed. Here are the options I'm thinking about: 1. Dispute this 2. Delete claim 14 3. Reorganize claims. 4. File two separate patents
I strongly feel that all 14 claims belong to the same patent. But fighting with the examiner might be futile, and getting rid of claim 14 would be the easiest option.
Any constructive advice on how to deal with the situation and what are the trade-offs of options 1-4 is appreciated.
Thanks, Evgeni