SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office didn’t overstep its authority when it made controversial changes to the rules for filing patents, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Friday .
Former patent office director Jon Dudas sought to unclog the backlog of patent applications with rule changes that were scheduled to go into effect in 2007. He wanted to reduce the number of claims, which are listed to define the patent, and the number of continuations and requests for continued examination. Claims would have been limited to 25, and continuations and RCEs to just three. Currently, there are no limits.
