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[NC_Pat_Atty]

We received an Office Action that includes a 103 rejection and says the 103 rejection
is being “maintained but modified” and in a subsequent paragraph says the 103 rejection
is being “reinstated and modified.”  I have never heard of a rejection being reinstated
(except after Appeal, which this is not) and am not sure what to make of this.
 I was thinking maybe the Examiner was setting up to make the next rejection final
or something, but it will be the second action after an RCE so she would most likely
be able to do that anyway.  I looked around in the MPEP but wasn’t seeing anything
about reinstated rejections (except after Appeal).  Has anyone seen this kind of
statement before, and how would you respond?  (I will of course fully respond
to the actual substance of the rejection.)

[klaviernista]

Sounds like it might just be an examiner goof.  I've seen the "maintained but modified"  language several times.  Never seen the "reinstated" language. 

I wouldn't focus much energy on resonding to that sentence, as it is not the important issue in the OA.

[khazzah]

I wouldn't focus much energy on resonding to that sentence, as it is not the important issue in the OA.

It's an interesting mental exercise to consider the differences between maintained and reinstated. But
I absolutely wouldn't spend any more energy on the significance of the phrasing used by the Examiner.

I think there's less significance in the choice of reinstated/maintained/issued/... by an Examiner than there is between analogous word choices made by patent attorneys, ie, traversed/rendered moot/overcome/maintained.

And I am quite certain that the Examiner sees no difference when the attorney traverses vs. renders moot vs. overcomes a rejection. Maybe somewhere somehow someday a litigating attorney can make something out of these word choices in the file history when the patent is asserted. But I've got enough things to consider when drafting a response without torturing myself over this one too :-)