New rules of US patent practice

New Rules for US patent Practice this is quite an Interesting artice by William F. Heinze mailto:Bill.Heinze@tkhr.com Effective December 28, 2001, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has changed its Rules of Practice in Patent Cases with regard to claiming the benefit of prior-filed applications. The changes were made in order to implement provisions of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 for eighteen-month publication of patent applications. Here is a brief analysis of these changes announced in the Federal Register Notice of December 28, 2001.