A Big Thanks to Big Pharma
Today was supposed to be one of the most depressing days of my professional career. Last year the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office proposed new rules that would dramatically affect the way patent applications are prosecuted. When a firestorm of hostility grew from the patent attorney bar, the PTO went back to the drawing board. Unfortunately, round 2 of the new rules was not an improvement and in many ways was even worse. Essentially, it completely changed the rules for patent applications, often years after the applications were filed. As of yesterday morning, it appeared that many inventors were about to loose valuable rights (or spend huge sums of money to comply with the examination support document aspects of the new rules0 and there was little inventors could do about it.
In comes Glaxo SmithKline - one of the largest corporations in the world and the maker of many products which make our lives better. While it is easy to complain about very large corporations (I do it all the time), they often do good things too. Glaxomakes compounds that save lives, make us feel better, etc. Yesterday - literally the 11th hour - Glaxo convinced a judge in the Eastern District of Virginia to stop the PTO from implementing its new rules until the Court could conduct a trial on whether the PTO had the authority to issue the new rules. Glaxo argued that the new rules were improper because people had already made decisions on pursuing patents years ago, and it would be improper to suddenly change the rules on them now. Seems pretty logical to anyone outside Alexandria. Hopefully the Court will agree with Glaxo's position at trial. In the meantime, we can all breath a temporary sigh of relief.
Thank You Glaxo SmithKline
In comes Glaxo SmithKline - one of the largest corporations in the world and the maker of many products which make our lives better. While it is easy to complain about very large corporations (I do it all the time), they often do good things too. Glaxomakes compounds that save lives, make us feel better, etc. Yesterday - literally the 11th hour - Glaxo convinced a judge in the Eastern District of Virginia to stop the PTO from implementing its new rules until the Court could conduct a trial on whether the PTO had the authority to issue the new rules. Glaxo argued that the new rules were improper because people had already made decisions on pursuing patents years ago, and it would be improper to suddenly change the rules on them now. Seems pretty logical to anyone outside Alexandria. Hopefully the Court will agree with Glaxo's position at trial. In the meantime, we can all breath a temporary sigh of relief.
Thank You Glaxo SmithKline
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