Once received by the USPTO, the application is assigned to an Examiner from an appropriate art unit who will then examine the application. The Examiner then searches and analyzes the relevant prior art and compares it to the invention as claimed to determine whether the invention is patentable. The Examiner then mails a first Office Action, which indicates whether the USPTO has accepted your application as written (which occurs very rarely), or denies your application (as is usually the case). The Examiner may allow all claims, allow some and reject some, or reject all claims. The Applicant is given a period of time to reply to the Office Action (usually 3 months, although a reply can be filed within 6 months with payment of time extension fees). The reply may include an amendment of some or all of the claims to better distinguish over the prior art, and/or may include a request for reconsideration of the rejection. After consideration of the reply to the first Office Action, the Examiner will either issue a Notice of Allowance, or issue a second Office Action. Again, the second Office Action may include a rejection of some or all claims. At this point, the Examiner may make the rejection “final.” If this happens, the Applicant doesn’t have an absolute right to further amend the claims, although the Examiner may permit it. When facing a final rejection with no hope of amending the claims, the Applicant can appeal to the Examiner to reconsider the final rejection. Where the Examiner rejects the appeal, the Applicant can either file a continuation application, or appeal to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). A continuation application is a second application for the same invention and is generally used to restart the application process. If the Patent Trial and Appeal Board rejects an Applicant’s appeal, the Applicant can appeal to the courts. Thus, as is readily apparent, the application process is very time consuming; the time period between filing the application and receiving a first Office Action is usually 12-18 months. In addition, response times between Office Actions can vary.