An early appeal before the examiner has had a chance to “better” the rejection can sometimes end the case without ever having to deal with those “better” rejections.

Do the quality experts get involved with Appeals? Do they weed out bad rejections or rubber stamp the examiners?

To emphasize or not in your patent prosecution arguments. While we do not answer this question, this post illustrates how the applicant should be careful – it can be dangerous to emphasize language that in a way that the other side can use the emphasis to their advantage.

Know the rules for what it takes to retain flexibility in the claim scope.

Read about motivation to combine and an exception that can swallow the rule.