The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will publish tomorrow in the Federal Register new rules that will allow the agency to continue to make the patent examination process more effective and efficient by encouraging applicants to use greater precision in describing the scope of their inventions.  The new rules will be effective on November 1, 2007.

"Patent quality is the shared responsibility of applicants and the USPTO," noted Jon Dudas, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  "Higher quality applications result in a more effective examination.  These rules better focus examination and will bring closure to the examination process more quickly, while ensuring quality and maintaining the right balance between flexibility for applicants and the rights of the public. The U.S. patent system plays a tremendous role in motivating innovation, and these changes to examining patent applications will help ensure that America remains on the leading edge in the knowledge driven global economy."

The new rules have been modified, relative to the rules that were originally proposed early last year, in response to the extensive comments the USPTO received from the public.  Under the new rules, applicants may file two new continuing applications and one request for continued examination as a matter of right.  Also, under the new rules, each application may contain up to 25 claims, with no more than five of them independent claims, without any additional effort on the part of the applicant.  Beyond these thresholds, however, the new rules require applicants to show why an additional continuation is necessary or to provide supplementary information relevant to the claimed invention to present additional claims.

Placing conditional boundaries on a previously unbounded process provides for more certainty and clarity in the patent process. The result is that application quality will be improved and piecemeal or protracted examination will be avoided, enhancing the quality and timeliness of both the examination process and issued patents.

The new rules are available today to anyone who visits the Federal Register office and will be available tomorrow, August 21, 2007, no later than noon, in the Federal Register column on our News & Notices page .   In the coming weeks, the USPTO will be conducting outreach on these new rules to better inform external stakeholders of their content and to answer questions.  A webinar on the new rules is scheduled for Thursday, August 23, 2007.  More information on this webinar and other upcoming information sessions will be published at Rule Changes to Focus the Patent Process in the 21st Century.

(www.uspto.gov)