I know we don't have anything to lose by filing the Appeal. We did that after an interview with the examiner afterwhich he agreed that the amended Claim 29 could be entered but it seems he hasn't done so yet. It seems that because of his lack of action, we sent a Notice of Appeal which points out that no action has yet been taken and it provides the examiner more time to enter the agreed upon amendment.

Perhaps the USPTO was just waiting for the request and payment and now the ageed upon amendment has to be reviewed by a panel first before being entered?

GLTAL