Patent Law

Gene Quinn of IPWatchdog "attended the oral arguments this morning at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit regarding the matter of the United States Patent & Trademark Office v. Tafas, the appeal of the claims and continuations rules promulgated by the USPTO back in August of 2007, which were preliminarily enjoined and ultimately permanently enjoined by Judge Cacheris of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia."

In summary Gene writes:

It is hard to imagine that GlaxoSmithKline and Dr. Tafas could have drawn a better three judge panel than they did for this appeal of Judge Cacheris? ruling.  The judges assigned to the panel hearing the case were Judges Rader, Bryson and Prost, who took turns laying it on the government USPTO General Counsel Toupin.  It is hard to imagine based on the barrage of questions thrown at Toupin that this panel is going to do anything other than affirm Judge Cacheris? decision and rule that the claims and continuations rules were beyond the authority of the Patent Office and cannot be implemented.

Read the full detailed post here.