Preissuance submissions are a one-chance opportunity to present prior art in such a way that an examiner will be convinced to apply the prior art to reject pending claims in a patent application.
"The preissuance submission provision in the America Invents Act aims to bring the most relevant prior art to the examiner’s attention as early as possible during prosecution to enhance examination effectiveness and efficiency,” says Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) David Kappos.
A preissuance submission gives the third-party submitter an opportunity to convince a patent examiner that the prior art being submitted needs to be applied to reject pending claims. The submitter’s goal is to have the prior art applied by the examiner so as to force the patent applicant to narrow the scope of any subsequently allowed claims, or prevent allowance of the patent application.