I was running the numbers for a breakdown of what events occur after a reply brief (for a next week’s post — don’t forget to subscribe!) and was surprised to see this:
I quickly realized that the cliff for 2018 is because abandonments happen quickly when you forget to pay the appeal forwarding fee required by 37 CFR 41.45. I looked through a handful of the 2018 abandonments and they were all for failure to pay forwarding fee. The recourse? A $2000 petition to revive ($1000 for small entities).
So . . . don’t fall off the cliff! Remember to pay the Appeal Forwarding Fee along with your reply brief.