There are conflicting stories and if GRCU announce
Post# of 7775
Patents can be pending and rejection letters do not mean that the patent is dead. When a patent application is rejected the applicant can provide further info as evidence. If the applicant doesn;t respond within a certain period of time the application is closed and becomes harder to reopen. A patent can also be reassigned to a company etc. which takes over the application. This is sometimes done also. When an application is reassigned to a new entitiy it will be noted as reassigned to XXXX
FYI the patent office especially when it pertains to software is automatically going into rejection modes and one really needs to provide evidence of patentability. Remember one thing that the patent office is like an insurance company...they will reject as much as possible to gather as much money as possible as everytime you have to submit additional information the cost rises. Now on the other hand this is not a bad thing as the claim is protected until the countdown ticker starts which is when the patent is issued.
People that submit applications do this all the time. I work for a company and we are always filing IP claims. We actually want the process to take several years before the patent is granted so that it keeps our competitors in check.