On Wednesday, October 31, a Federal District Court granted a preliminary injunction preventing the USPTO’s entire new patent rules package from taking effect as planned on November 1, 2007. More specifically, the preliminary injunction prevents the USPTO from implementing the current rules package as planned, and also prohibits the USPTO from issuing any "new regulations restricting the number of continuing applications, the number of requests for continued examination, and the number of claims that may be filed with the USPTO." Please note that this order is only temporary, and will expire upon the entry of a final judgement in the ongoing lawsuit filed by GlaxoSmithKline against the USPTO, which might take several months.
We will, of course, continue to keep you advised of any further developments in this matter.
Jay F. Williams, an associate at Wenderoth, Lind & Ponack, L.L.P., gave a presentation to the Intellectual Property Practice in Japan Committee Meeting at the AIPLA Annual Meeting in October. The topic of discussion was USPTO Examiniation Guidelines on Non-Obviousness Post-KSR.
To view a PDF version of the slideshow presentation given by Mr. Williams, please visit this link: USPTO Examination Guidelines on Non-obviousness Post-KSR
