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The difference between withdrawn claims and canceled claims

In an amendment to the Patent claims, you must mark them (Original), (Currently amended), (Canceled), (Withdrawn), (Previously presented), (New), and (Not entered).

Here is the difference between withdrawn claims and canceled claims: the withdrawn claim is that you can seek to re-introduce it later while canceled is cancelled. However, at most points in the process you can enter amendments and an amendment could add a new claim with the exact wording of a previously canceled claim so canceled doesn’t mean the wording can’t come back.

On the other hand, you may not automatically have the rights to submit new claims at the end of prosecution. At the point when all (active) claims are allowed, prosecution is done. Amending in a new claim would not be looked at very favorably, but asking for a withdrawn claim to be considered might fly.

Often some of the original claims are to a device and some are to a method of using (or making) that device. You might have a claim to a genus (independent) and also claims (dependent) to several species of an invention. You might be required to limit the number of species that will be searched. I would withdraw the claims to species that aren’t going to be searched.