human: How would the Office treat an amendment that is not in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121?
assistant: If a preliminary amendment (with a date of certificate of mailing on or after 3/1/01) is non-compliant, the applicant will be given one month from the mailing date of the Notice of Non-Compliant Amendment (37 CFR 1.121) to resubmit the amendment in compliance with § 1.121. This period of time is not extendable. The examination on the merits of the application may commence without the entry of the preliminary amendment unless the applicant resubmits the amendment in compliance with § 1.121 within the one-month time period.
If an amendment (with a date of certificate of mailing on or after 3/1/01) filed in response to a non-final Office action is a bona fide reply, but is non-compliant with 37 CFR 1.121, the applicant will be given one-month (or 30 days, if longer) from the mailing date of the Notice of Non-Compliant Amendment (37 CFR 1.121) to correct the non-compliance in order to avoid abandonment. This period of time is extendable under 37 CFR 1.136(a).
If an amendment after final (with a date of certificate of mailing on or after 3/1/01) is non-compliant, the unentered amendment will be forwarded to the examiner. The examiner will address the non-compliance in an Advisory Action. Additional time will not be given to make the amendment compliant with the rule. Applicant will have the remainder of the time period (if any) set forth in the final Office action to correct the non-compliance.
If an amendment under 37 CFR 1.312 (with a date of certificate of mailing on or after 3/1/01) filed before the payment of issue fee is non-compliant, the 312 amendment will be addressed by the examiner in a Response to 312 Amendment (PTO-271). Additional time will not be given to correct the non-compliance. Applicant will have the remainder of the time period (if any) set forth in the Notice of Allowance to correct the non-compliance before, or filed with, the payment of issue fee.