The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published the amended rules governing practice before the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (Board or BPAI) in ex parte patent appeals. The USPTO amends the rules to: Remove several of the briefing requirements for an appeal brief, provide for the Board to take jurisdiction over the […]

In its only decision of yesterday’s Snowmaggedon, the BPAI affirmed a Patent Examiner’s anticipation rejection, citing the Applicant’s attempt to claim a new benefit of an old process. Ex parte Satoshi Matsubara, et al. is a brief but attention-grabbing case illustrating the law surrounding the concept of inherency and claiming a new use or benefit […]

In In re Kubin (08-1184), the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that the US Patent and Trademark Office’s Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences was correct to hold claims as unpatentably obvious when applicants use “conventional techniques” to make an invention.  This is bad news not just for biotech but for […]