Patent Law
Judge Blocks Patent Rules
Posted Nov 1, 2007, 05:56 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A Virginia judge has issued an injunction to bar controversial new patent rules from taking effect today.
U.S. District Judge James Cacheris ruled late Tuesday (PDF posted by the Wall Street Journal Law Blog and Patently-O) on a motion filed by pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, the Recorder reports.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had said the rules were designed to make the patent process more “efficient by encouraging applicants to use greater precision in describing the scope of their inventions,” the Wall Street Journal Law Blog previously reported.
The rules would reduce the number of claims inventors can file to help define a patent and the number of continuations inventors can file to amend patent claims.