The Reex request was accepted and made official 4 days after the NIRC date. It is my understanding that first the application is accepted or not ...if it is, it is published in the Gazette and assigned to an examiner who determines if it is ordered or not. Had the application been accepted before the NIRC date, Rimell would have been assigned the case since he was the examiner on the then current unfinished reex and it would have been up to him to determine to order a new reex or not....like he did with 90/010,551 which he denied.

I am of the opinion that the new examiner had no choice but to order a new reex only because of the record that was officially "at hand" at the time.

GLTAL