Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Patent Law Blogs -> Patent Docs

Patent Law

: Patent Docs

USPTO Proposes New Procedure for Treating Rejected Claims That Are Not Appealed

By Donald Zuhn, Kevin Noonan, Chris Singer, Sherri Oslick, and Jason Derry

By Sarah Fendrick -- Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a notice in the Federal Register (74 Fed. Reg. 66097) proposing changes in the procedure for handling notices of appeal and appeal briefs that identify fewer than all of the rejected claims as being appealed. Under the change, rejected claims that are identified as not appealed in a notice of appeal or appeal brief will automatically be deemed canceled. Under current procedures, an applicant is not able to appeal only part of an examiner's decision. Under 37 C.F.R. § 1.113(c), a reply to a final Office action...

Full post as published by Patent Docs on December 21, 2009 (boomark / email).