In our August 2007 newsletter we informed you that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) had proposed significant new rules which were scheduled to go into effect on November 1, 2007.  Those rules would have limited the number of continuation patent applications you could file, limit the number of claims you could include within a single patent application, and require you to provide lists of your interrelated patent applications to the USPTO, among other things.  Those rules were put on hold on the eve of their enactment as the result of a lawsuit filed in federal court by GlaxoSmithKline and an individual named Triantafyllos Tafas.

The judge in that case has now ruled that the USPTO does not have the authority to enact its proposed rules.  Therefore, the rules will not go into effect at the present time.  The USPTO may, however, appeal the case, in which case a final decision on the status of the rules may not be made for quite some time.  In the meantime, however, the existing USPTO rules will continue to govern both pending and new patent applications filed with the USPTO.

 

Sincerely,