New Patent Application Rules Set To Take Effect November 1

October 19, 2007

A document posted on the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office website describes some profound changes in how the Patent office will assess continuing applications as well as what the office calls "applications containing patentably indistinct claims.

Most of these changes will kick into high gear on November 1 of this year.

Here's theUSPTO's summary of what's going to be different:

The revised rules require that any third or subsequent continuing application that is a continuation application or a continuation-in-part application, and any second or subsequent request for continued examination in an application family, be filed to obtain consideration of an amendment, argument, or evidence, and be supported by a showing as to why the amendment, argument, or evidence sought to be entered could not have been previously submitted.
The revised rules also require an applicant to file an examination support document that covers all of the claims in an application if the application contains more than five independent claims or more than twenty-five total claims.
The USPTO has also revised rules of practice with respect to multiple applications that have the same claimed filing or priority date, substantial overlapping disclosure, a common inventor, and common ownership.
These changes will allow the USPTO to conduct a better and more thorough and reliable examination of patent applications.

I am sometimes skeptical when I read the word "reliable" on a U.S. Government document. But we'll be watching them (as some feel they are watching us).