I've seen both, a meeting face to face with no submissions of drawings and or other documentation and those that had reams of them. The key being that the reason for the face to face meetings I have been through was to basically convince the examiner of our side or the debate and that his was in error or at least nothing to deny a claim (s) upon.

Each face to face that I was exposed to ended in an agreement or an "agreement to disagree" I haven't seen one where nothing was decided or nothing in the point of view of the examiner at least, as this summary shows.

Every interview gets a summary posting whether it be by phone or in person, and in all the cases I have seen a followup response by the patent-holder followed. Either to support the agreement between the two parties and/or to add claims or to dispute the findings of the examiner for the record, so as to aid in the committee decisions or appeals.

So there is no regulation changes here just the usual face to face, the summary and the patentee's followup letter, the difference here is the lack of any conclusion esp. when there was a face to face meeting. IMO those types of meetings, where the patentee and his lawyer go to meet with the examiner personally, usually turn out in the patentee's favor...this is a first for me where there was no agreement or disagreement noted...just a directive by the examiner to send in a letter.

Now, obviously, I could be wrong, it wouldn't be the first time nor the last, but I see this action by the examiner and RG's open comment about the reexams taking "months and years" means we're in for a longer than expected debate.

Remember also the claims rejected by the examiner totaled a lot more than just the two that were discussed, why that occurred I don't know either. That was another oddity to me. But even that could be that our side just said .... look, if we get claim 4 and 8 that's the guts of the patent anyway so let's not argue over the others, they're minor.

In any case one thing I know for sure. Once a patent goes through an ex parte reexam and it's main claims remain intact, that patent comes out a very strong patent, esp. if one was able to add additonal claims. The only potential licensee ,of those reexamed patents, who will fight against licensing, are those who outright claim that they do not infringe. In those cases, if taken to court, make it a lot easier for a judge/jury to decide, there;s no questions of patentability etc. etc. etc. ...just a simple decision of does one or doesn't one step on my patent. When it gets simplified, the potential licensee usually settles before risking a possible stiffer monetary reward from a jury, not counting the million(s) plus dollars it usally costs to go through the courts. JMO