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Tuesday, July 18, 2006

U.S.-PTO Really Making Radical Changes of Rules to Enter into Force by January 01, 2007?

Some time ago I had

reported that the U.S. Patent Office has proposed drastically changing claims counting and continuation practice. Now Mr. Nipper

writes in his Blog that the worst nightmare so far might become reality as early as by January 01, 2007:

"[...] The revised rules would require that second or subsequent continued examination filings, whether a continuation application, a continuation-in-part application, or a request for continued examination, be supported by a showing as to why the amendment, argument, or evidence presented could not have been previously submitted.

Thus, under such rules, you'll likely only get ONE continuing application per filing. ONE!

Word on the street (via Hal Wegner) is that a USPTO Deputy Director announced today that the rules will likely be effective January 2007.

I estimate that MOST patent attorneys and their clients are opposed to this rule, yet most likely do not know that it is even coming.

Other than discussions by a few patent bloggers ... no one is really talking about this issue. Who speaks for patent attorneys? Where is the opposition? Who is raising the red flag? In a nutshell ... no one.

Unless patent attorneys and/or their organizational representatives (AIPLA, ABA, etc.) get their acts together and speak up ... these changes are going to be a done deal and you can kiss continuation practice goodbye. [...]"

A Patent Office gets aware of certain problems and decides to solve them on the back of the applicants and their attorneys. And, the attorney's associations appear to hibernate or to be otherwise distracted.

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