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November 6, 2007
Update: USPTO Enjoined from Making
Final Rules Effective
By Adam K. Sacharoff
The following is an update to “United States Patent and Trademark Office Publishes New Rules on Patent Applications,” which appeared in the September 2007 issue of the Litigation & Counseling Alert.
SmithKline Beecham Corporation, which does business as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), sued the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia, challenging the Final Rules on Claims & Continuations, which were scheduled to go into effect on November 1, 2007. GSK, seeking both preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, was successful in its injunction hearing on October 31, 2007. Judge James C. Cacheris issued a preliminary injunction to block the new claims and continuations rules from taking effect.
A full decision on whether the USPTO can enact the rules will be made in the coming months. We will keep you updated as this case develops and alert you if and when these new rules take effect.
Adam K. Sacharoff, a Principal in the firm’s Intellectual Property practice group, concentrates on counseling, licensing and obtaining protection for a variety of patent, trademark and copyright matters before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and throughout the world. He also provides novelty, invalidity and non-infringement opinions. Adam can be reached at 312.521.2775 or asacharoff@muchshelist.com.
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