On or about November 28, 2008, the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") sent an "Office Action" to the company in connection with its patent application for "Microwave-Based Recovery of Hydrocarbons and Fossil Fuels", U.S. Patent App. No. 11/610,823, filed December 14, 2006. Among other formal issues, the Office Action alleges that the pending claims are non-patentable for being "obvious". Management has been advised by it's intellectual property attorneys that the receipt of this "non-final rejection" from the U.S. Patent Office rejecting claims as allegedly being obvious is quite ordinary during the patent application examination process. In fact, nearly all patent applications receive at least one "non-final rejection" during the examination process by the USPTO. Importantly, it should be noted that the examination process does not stop there. Examination of the patent application continues by the Applicants being able to file a "response" to the non-final rejection. The response addresses each of the issues raised by the USPTO. This response may include rebuttal arguments and/or amendments to the claims in order to convince the USPTO to allow the claims and issue the patent. In this regard, the company's intellectual property attorneys are presently analyzing the Office Action and will be filing a response with the USPTO in due course.
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