Pre-Filing Compliance Review
One office action round costs several thousand dollars in professional fees and adds months to the timeline. Most of what triggers a first office action is visible in the draft before filing. This review is a deliberate quality gate placed in front of the filing rather than after it.
Request this serviceFormalities and procedure
Checked against 35 U.S.C. §111 and 37 CFR, with particular attention to the failure modes common in China-to-US filings.
- ADS data validation
- Inventor given-name and family-name ordering
- Priority timing and chain
- Residual Chinese characters in drawings and line-drawing standards
§112 in depth
Antecedent basis issues are identified across the claim set. Phrases such as "configured to" or "module for" are assessed under Williamson for whether they invoke §112(f) and, if so, whether corresponding structure is actually disclosed. Multiple dependent claims referencing multiple dependent claims are flagged, since that pattern carries a substantial USPTO fee.
Case-law risk language
Words such as "must", "always", and "critical" are flagged under SciMed as potential scope surrender. Support for broad genus claims is assessed against the worked examples under Amgen.
Statutory duties and filing strategy
On-sale bar exposure and IDS obligations are raised early, since the downside there is inequitable conduct rather than a rejection. Likely restriction requirements are anticipated with a suggested election, and continuation opportunities are identified while they are still available.
Common questions
Is the review done by software or by a person?
Both, in a fixed order. Automated analysis performs the exhaustive scan across the claim set and specification; a US patent agent or attorney then reviews the findings, discards false positives, and decides what is actually worth changing. The opinion is issued by the professional, not the tool.
Can the review be run on an application another firm drafted?
Yes. It is frequently used that way — as an independent check before filing, with the drafting firm keeping the file and making the amendments itself if it prefers.