CLOSING THE LOOPHOLE

In light of these changes, we recommend adopting the following strategy:

Filing a Request to Postpone Acceptance to avoid early or inadvertent acceptance of the application.  We recommend filing the Request to Postpone Acceptance at the time of filing a Request for Examination.  Filing a Request to Postpone Acceptance is particularly important where the application includes a large claim set. 

After the examination report has issued and before the application is accepted, amending the claim using multiple dependencies to reduce the number of claims in the claim set.  

Withdrawing the Request to Postpone Acceptance when the application is in order for acceptance and the applicant agrees with the claims and the number of claims to be accepted.