Court Nullifies PTO Rules To Limit Patent Filings
This article was originally published in The Pink Sheet Daily
Executive Summary
Patent office lacks legal authority to make substantive changes to the law, district court says.
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Patent Rule On Continuations Is Invalid; Three Others May Still Bite Pharma
The drug industry won a partial victory in its battle with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office over rules to limit certain patent filings
Patent Rule On Continuations Is Invalid; Three Others May Still Bite Pharma
The drug industry won a partial victory in its battle with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office over rules to limit certain patent filings
Patent application rule struck down by appeals court
The Federal Circuit appeals court found that the Patent and Trademark Office's rule limiting the number of continuation applications a patent applicant may file conflicts with current law and is thus invalid. But it found that three other PTO rules limiting requests for continued examination and requiring an examination support document for certain filings are within the scope of PTO's rulemaking authority. Inventor Triantafyllos Tafas and GlaxoSmithKline challenged the rules in separate lawsuits, and they had won on all four rules in the district court (1"The Pink Sheet" DAILY, April 1, 2008). The district court must now reconsider the other rules in more detail