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USPTO Cancels Appeals and Interferences Rule 41.200(b)

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

By Sarah Fendrick -- In a notice published in the Federal Register (75 Fed. Reg. 19558), the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office cancelled Rule 41.200(b) as a result of the decision rendered in Agilent Technologies, Inc. v. Affymetrix, Inc., 567 F.3d 1366 (Fed. Cir. 2009). 37 C.F.R. § 41.200(b) (2004) provides: ''A claim shall be given its broadest reasonable construction in light of the specification of the application or patent in which it appears.'' The Federal Circuit in Agilent found that 37 C.F.R. § 41.200(b) did not apply in an interference proceeding where one party challenges another's written description. The...

Full post as published by Patent Docs on April 30, 2010 (boomark / email).