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DOC/PTO

RIN: 0651-AB93

Publication ID: Fall 2007

Title: Changes to Practice for Continuing Applications, Requests for Continued Examination Practice, and Applications Containing Patentably Indistinct Claims
Abstract: The Office revises the rules of practice to share the burden of examining an application if the applicant has filed multiple continuing applications or multiple requests for continued examination. The revised rules would require that second or subsequent continuation applications and second or subsequent requests for continued examination of an application include a showing as to why the amendment, argument, or evidence presented was not previously submitted. The revised rules would also ease the burden of examining multiple applications that have the same effective filing date, overlapping disclosure, a common inventor, and common assignee by requiring that all patentably indistinct claims in such applications be submitted in a single application absent good and sufficient reason. These changes would allow the Office to apply the patent examining resources currently absorbed by multiple continuing applications and requests for continued examination that simply recycle earlier applications to the examination of new applications and thus allow the Office to reduce the backlog of unexamined applications. This will mean faster, more efficient examination for the typical applicant without any additional work on the applicant's part, but a small minority of applicants who consume a disproportionate share of Agency resources will be required to share the burden they place on the Agency.
Agency: Department of Commerce(DOC)	Priority: Other Significant
RIN Status: Previously published in the Unified Agenda	Agenda Stage of Rulemaking: Long-Term Actions
Major: No	Unfunded Mandates: No
CFR Citation: 37 CFR 1
Legal Authority: 35 USC 2(b)(2)

Legal Deadline: None

Timetable:

Action	Date	FR Cite
NPRM	01/03/2006	71 FR 48
NPRM Comment Period End	05/03/2006
Final Action	08/21/2007	72 FR 46716
Next Action Undetermined	To Be Determined

Regulatory Flexibility Analysis Required: No	Government Levels Affected: None
Small Entities Affected: No	Federalism: No
Included in the Regulatory Plan: No
RIN Data Printed in the FR: No
Related RINs: Merged with 0651-AB94
Agency Contact: Robert W. Bahr Senior Patent Attorney Department of Commerce Patent and Trademark Office Mail Stop Comments-Patents, Commissioner for Patents, P. O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313 Phone:571 272-8800 Email: robert.bahr@uspto.gov