U.S. Patent And Trademark Office's Final Rules Directed To Continued Examination Filings, Patent Applications Containing Patentably Indistinct Claims, And Examination Of Claims In Patent Applications.

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U.S. Patent And Trademark Office's Final Rules Directed To Continued Examination Filings, Patent Applications Containing Patentably Indistinct Claims, And Examination Of Claims In Patent Applications.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") published the final rules ("Rules") directed to:

Continued examination filings,

Patent applications containing patentably indistinct claims, and

Examination of claims in patent applications on August 21, 2007.

These Rules will have a dramatic effect on how patent applications are prosecuted in the United States because, among other things, they limit the number of continuations and requests for continued examinations ("RCEs") that can be filed in the USPTO. The Rules further require applications containing patentably indistinct claims to be identified and, in certain situations, prosecuted in only a single application that is subjec...

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