Quintet of Ex-Patent Office Officials Slam Proposed Rulemaking

Five former high ranking officials at the US Patent and Trademark Office called for the agency to withdraw a proposed rules package that would make it easier to invalidate clusters of related patents connected to a single invention and obtained through continuation applications.

The proposals, announced in a May 10 notice of proposed rulemaking, would “significantly increase the cost of obtaining patents and the hurdles in enforcing patents,” former PTO Directors Drew Hirshfeld, Andrei Iancu, and David Kappos, and Deputy Directors Laura Peter, and Russell Slifer said in a Tuesday letter to current Director Kathi Vidal. The proposal will ...