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Court Blocks Controversial New Patent Rules

Posted by Zonk on from the walking-a-fine-line dept.

An anonymous reader writes "InformationWeek is reporting that a court in Virginia has issued an injunction against controversial new patent rules that were supposed to go into effect tomorrow. The court granted a motion filed by GlaxoSmithKline, which is suing the US patent office over the issue. Among other things, the new rules would limit the extent to which existing patent applications can be modified. The patent office says the new rules would speed up the patent process, but critics say they hurt inventors."

3 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Playing devil's advocate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Having submitted several patents through my company, I can attest that they need to be rewritten all the time because patent reviewers are idiots. They take a one sentence claim, pick a two 'big' words out it and do a literature search. If those two words appear in any publication remotely related to the field related to your patent, they mark it as prior art.

    1. Re:Playing devil's advocate by Anonymous+Crowhead · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'll give you an example. If you claim you have discovered a novel way to screen for a cancer, say pancreatic cancer, in a tissue sample using some lab technique, say PCR, the patent clerk is going to hand you back the first published article that mentions pancreatic cancer and PCR, even when the paper is discussing something like a pathway involved pancreatic cancer and PCR is mentioned in the materials and methods section.

      I have had patents rejected in very similar circumstances.

  2. Re:Please... by steveshaw · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I personally know of dozens of "little guys" for whom the patent system has provided massive benefits. I know because I drafted their patents and helped them with the sale/licensing. Ask most any patent attorney and they will have the same report.

    Please stop believing all the /. FUD regarding patents and IP in general.

    On another note, from the perspective of a patent attorney, these Proposed Rules are a nightmare. This Preliminary Injunction was a great thing, and anybody who has any thought of ever filing a patent application should be glad they've been stopped.