Continuation Rule Changes Update

From the IPO (link):

"At a conference in New York yesterday, a speaker from the USPTO said the new patent rules on continuation applications and numbers of claims are expected to be published in August and in effect in October. IPO believes the rules are likely to be less severe than those that were published for comment in 2006."

From the USPTO (link):

"On July 9, 2007, OMB concluded its review of the Continuations and Claims rule changes. The final rules will be made public when they are published in the Federal Register, which is expected to be later this summer. The rules will become effective at least 60 days after publication in the Federal Register, and no earlier than October 1, 2007"

The abstracts of the rules currently available on the Federal Regulatory Information Web site (link1) (link2) reflects the abstracts of the Continuations and Claims notices of proposed rule-making that were published in January, 2006."

An internal USPTO team is currently working on details of implementing the rule changes. Examiners and managers will be given information and training on the new rules once they are published in the Federal Register. Additionally, management is currently discussing with POPA the appropriate process for negotiating any impacts the rules package may have.