Patent Docs: USPTO News: New Continuation and Claims Rules to Be Published in Late Summer: "The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced today (July 25, 2007) that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) completed its review of the new continuation and claims rules earlier this month. More importantly, the Patent Office also announced that the continuation and claims rules would be published in the Federal Register sometime in the late summer. The rules will become effective at least 60 days after publication, and according to the USPTO release, no earlier than October 1, 2007.
While abstracts of the new continuation and claims rules can be found on the Federal Regulatory Information website, the abstracts provide few clues as to what the final rules will look like. The abstracts for the continuation and claims rules can be found here:
- New continuation rule: "Changes to Practice for Continuing Applications, Requests for Continued Examination Practice, and Applications Containing Patentably Indistinct Claims
- "New claims rule: "Changes to Practice for the Examination of Claims in Patent Applications"
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