PTO Withdraws Claim and Continuation Rules

Posted Monday, November 16, 2009 by Jim Ruttler.

The Patent Office, under its new director David Kappos, has withdrawn the previously proposed claim and continuation limit rules. In a previous posting, I discussed how the claim rules would limit the number of claims to 25 in a single application unless the applicant could show why more were needed and the continuation rules would limit the number of continuations to two. The previous director introduced the rules as a means to reduce application backlog and the overall application size to increase examination efficiency. However, Kappos indicated in his recent blog posting he believed that these rules had the effect of severely curbing patent rights.

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