New Rejections Raised During Appeal by Patent Examiner?

Just a reminder that the USPTO Patent Trial & Appeal Board (PTAB) still does a lot of appeal work besides conducting AIA trial proceedings.

The PTAB has released guidance on responding to new grounds of rejection in an examiner’s answer.  The article reviews the Board Rules for addressing new grounds of rejection, including responding to new grounds designated as such in an examiner’s answer, responding to undesignated new grounds of rejection, and the regulations providing for tolling of the time period for filing a reply brief while a petition for review of the examiner’s answer is pending.  

The article is found (here).