By Rory Pheiffer (September 21, 2017, 1:44 PM EDT) -- With a notice of allowance in hand, you no longer have to consider whether it makes sense to argue against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office examiner's latest rejection or amend the claims to expedite prosecution; instead, you have up to about four months[1] to decide whether to climb back into the ring for another round of prosecution by way of a continuation or divisional application.[2] Actually, "climbing into the ring" is hopefully not an apropos comparison for your experiences with the patenting process, as effective patent prosecution is more often a collaborative process with the examiner than combative. Regardless, once your patent has been allowed, the next strategic decision you have to make is whether there are good business and/or intellectual property reasons to pursue additional claims based on the disclosure contained within the patent application....