The Record for Most RCEs in a Single Application

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The table below shows the applications with the most requests for continued examination (RCEs). The winner is Qualcomm application 11/487,054 with an shocking 24 RCEs. What is equally shocking is the application had no final rejections! You can view the full transaction history here.

So how is it possible to have 24 RCEs and no final rejections? Its possible because of our wonderful duty of disclosure here in the U.S. (which, in case you missed the dripping sarcasm in that statement, I think is really stupid). All of the RCEs were filed with IDSs after the application had already been allowed.

I suppose it could have just been back luck that prior art kept surfacing for the 8 years between the initial allowance and the last IDS. But considering that Qualcomm occupies 66 of the 105 spots on the table, I am going to assume it is a purposeful strategy in order to keep the application pending and preserve the possibility of amending its claims and/or filing a continuation. And obviously Qualcomm is not alone, most of the applications on the list have very few final rejections relative to the number of RCEs. I didn’t go through all the file histories, but the ones I did go through were all very similar — a long string of RCEs + IDSs after the application was allowed. An overwhelming majority of the time the references were not cited in the next office action but simply a new notice of allowance was mailed.

There is one big reason that I don’t like this practice – it is essentially a tax paid to the USPTO. Filing 24 RCEs costs a boatload of money (even at small entities rates) and so this strategy is not available to entities without a lot of money. At the same time, its wasteful to make companies that can afford it go through these charades. So its bad for small inventors, and its bad for big inventors. The easy solution is to have a mechanism for suspending prosecution indefinitely that is open to any applicant for any application. But then the USPTO wouldn’t be raking in all those RCE fees.

Application Number	Number of RCEs	# of Final Rejections	Assignee	Customer Number	Patent Number
11487054	24	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9572179
9931469	21	2	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9130810
9933639	21	2	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9100457
10648767	21	1	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9544860
11021791	21	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9148256
10053765	20	3	FLEXIWORLD TECHNOLOGIES, INC.	23581	9836257
10740722	20	0	NVIDIA CORPORATION	45594	8788996
10942169	20	0	NVIDIA CORPORATION	45594	8732644
11141807	20	1	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED A DELAWARE CORPORATION	23696	9350875
11178809	20	2	InterDigital	24374	N/A
11610060	20	2	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9578654
10420795	19	0	GTJ VENTURES, LLC	N/A	N/A
10420799	19	0	GTJ VENTURES, LLC	N/A	N/A
10871084	19	1	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8526963
10876340	19	1	NVIDIA CORPORATION	45594	8775997
11145357	19	1	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8630305
11261822	19	1	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED, A DELAWARE CORPORATION	23696	9408220
11487051	19	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9125092
11937913	19	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8730069
10236657	18	1	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8812706
11250353	18	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8934329
11486895	18	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9137072
10826579	17	1	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8745251
10956609	17	1	NVIDIA CORPORATION	45594	8711156
11165882	17	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9107109
11186697	17	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED A DELAWARE CORPORATION	23696	9246560
11463129	17	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8723705
11490228	17	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8526966
10725904	16	2	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9473269
10740779	16	2	NVIDIA CORPORATION	45594	8768642
11077764	16	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8669988
11180822	16	0	GTJ VENTURES, LLC	N/A	N/A
11370640	16	3	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED, A DELAWARE CORPORATION	23696	9144060
11528141	16	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8879856
10720938	15	0	VERIZON PATENT AND LICENSING INC.	32127	8750482
10780824	15	1	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8489949
10783771	15	3	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8705588
11192769	15	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8442441
11193546	15	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED A DELAWARE CORPORATION	23696	8406695
11365291	15	2	SILICONIX TECHNOLOGY C. V.	36538	9419092
11528307	15	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8879857
11610189	15	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9119220
12197993	15	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9136878
9810962	14	15	SONY CORPORATION	26263	N/A
9922581	14	0	SIMPSON STRONG-TIE COMPANY, INC.	498	8479470
10246052	14	1	N/A	26231	8333245
10390120	14	6	NVIDIA CORPORATION	45594	8749561
10581218	14	14	KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS ELECTRONICS N.V.	24738	N/A
10720920	14	1	VERIZON PATENT AND LICENSING INC.	32127	8761355
10740723	14	3	NVIDIA CORPORATION	45594	8775112
10781751	14	1	JOAO CONTROLS, LLC	N/A	N/A
10860116	14	2	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8705579
10922423	14	3	QUALCOMM, INCORPORATED	23696	8694869
10997838	14	2	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED, A DELAWARE CORPORATION	23696	8687658
11083693	14	4	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED, A DELAWARE CORPORATION	23696	9143305
11089643	14	1	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8645566
11251069	14	1	FLARION TECHNOLOGIES, INC.	23696	8514692
11260895	14	4	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED, A CORP. OF DELAWARE	23696	9179319
11274360	14	2	N/A	26703	8035471
11285389	14	2	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8539119
11285399	14	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8692838
11412678	14	2	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8766995
11440479	14	1	CARL ZEISS SMT GMBH	26161	8270077
11581218	14	2	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	15055	N/A
11586307	14	2	N/A	44729	9792659
11608783	14	2	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	N/A
11726674	14	0	N/A	63162	8557128
11929743	14	0	N/A	27530	9283415
12203846	14	1	N/A	36538	9484451
12715709	14	1	N/A	24374	N/A
12781192	14	1	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9236976
12859161	14	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9419749
10001477	13	4	MONTEREY RESEARCH, LLC	60909	8103496
10062156	13	2	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	N/A
10248661	13	13	N/A	34956	9271825
10580698	13	0	CARL ZEISS SMT GMBH	26161	8279524
10720868	13	2	VERIZON PATENT AND LICENSING INC.	32127	8472606
10739979	13	13	N/A	53184	N/A
10745160	13	2	NVIDIA CORPORATION	45594	8390619
10942209	13	3	NVIDIA CORPORATION	45594	8723231
10967007	13	1	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8694652
11020457	13	2	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED, A CORP. OF DELAWARE	23696	9137822
11132051	13	1	NVIDIA CORPORATION	45594	8743019
11141934	13	2	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9185538
11158584	13	1	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8942639
11261361	13	1	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9461859
11267638	13	2	NVIDIA CORPORATION	45594	8493396
11298353	13	14	N/A	N/A	N/A
11317083	13	11	CYPRESS SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATION	60909	9299578
11401979	13	1	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED, A DELAWARE CORPORATION	23696	9136974
11482430	13	2	GTJ VENTURES, LLC	N/A	9245270
11549604	13	2	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8989084
11553414	13	1	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9204428
11609627	13	3	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9462604
11738866	13	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9246633
11901484	13	0	NVIDIA CORPORATION	N/A	8502709
12121493	13	2	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8970272
12315124	13	0	GTJ VENTURES, LLC	N/A	9152943
12372954	13	2	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9240877
12418378	13	2	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9236885
12549560	13	1	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9240810
12778270	13	0	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	9338795
12925057	13	4	GTJ VENTURES, LLC	N/A	9911124
12944467	13	1	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	23696	8909962
13288348	13	0	N/A	23373	N/A

Other observations from this list:

Application 11/178,809 – After 20 RCEs, InterDigital let it go abandoned without paying the issue fee!
GTJ Ventures is the successor in interest to Joao Controls, which has been described as a “notorious troll”
Applications 9/810,962 (No Assignee) and 10/581,218 (Philips) appear to be the true RCE record holders with 14 RCEs filed in response to final rejections. The former eventually obtained a patent, whereas the latter did not.