human: Can an examiner reject a claim in an application being examined under 35 U.S.C. 135(b)(2) as being statutorily barred by the publication of another application?
assistant: Yes. Applicants have one year from the publication date of a published application to present the same or substantially the same claim as a claim in a published application. When the claim is, however, presented later than one year after the publication date, a rejection under 35 USC 135(b)(2) is proper. Thus, a rejection under § 135(b)(2) should be made when: The effective filing date of the claim in an application being examined is later than the publication date of the published application; The application being examined is claiming the same invention as claimed in the application publication, i.e., the claim in the application being examined is the same as, or for the same or substantially the same subject matter as, the published claim in the application publication; and The presentation of the claim in the application being examined is later than one year after the publication date of the published application Note: A rejection under 35 USC 102(a) and 102(e) should also be made, since the effective filing date of the claim in the application being examined is later than the publication date of the published application. The published application could be a U.S. patent application or an international application designating the United States