If you have a patent agent or attorney, communication with the Patent Office is typically conducted only through your representative. However, your representative can conduct an interview with the Examiner at any point after a first Office Action is received. Examiners generally grant such interviews as a matter of course, even after a final Office Action has been sent.
Applicants may accompany their representatives to such interviews. An interview is your best opportunity to meet and speak with with the Examiner. If you can make it to the Patent Office in Alexandria, Virginia (just outside of Washington, D.C.), a face-to-face meeting with the Examiner can be very gratifying. Otherwise, a conference-call interview may be conducted over the telephone.
Interviews are often the best way of reaching an agreement with the Examiner on allowance of an application. Examiners are generally more cooperative when you get them face-to-face. There are pluses and minuses to an inventor accompanying his or her representative to an interview at the Patent Office. A minus is that inventors are generally unfamiliar with all of the legal rules of patent prosecution, and of the legal import of various words and phrases. The inventor may well slip up and use certain words that indicate, in the Examiner’s mind, that the application should not be allowed.
On the other hand, the inventor generally knows the invention better than anyone. Sometimes, the Examiners struggle to understand what an invention is, or how exactly it works. An inventor may be the best person to explain this, to provide other necessary technical background, or just to give the Examiner a feeling for the real-life applications of the invention. Examiners like to know if an invention is being used in the real world and does not exist only on paper.
If you would like to meet with the Examiner and understand better what is happening with your examination, it is a good idea to speak with your attorney and see if an interview can be arranged and if you can attend. By working with your attorney and establishing general guidelines (perhaps, speak mainly when prompted by the attorney) you can be involved in the prosecution process and provide valuable help to your attorney, without jeopardizing your application.
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