GlaxoSmithKline Sues USPTO Over New Rules

Gene Quinn of White & Quinn and moderator of PLI's Patent Blog stated in his post yesterday, October 11, 2007:

As anticipated, a major player in the pharmaceutical industry (namely GlaxoSmithKline) has filed a federal complaint against the United States Patent Office seeking, among other things, to preliminarily enjoin implementation of the new claims and continuation rules that are to go into effect on November 1, 2007. 

The law suit was filed on Tuesday, October 9, 2007, in the United Stated Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, which is known to litigators and litigants as the "Rocket Docket" for the court's extraordinary ability to resolve disputes extremely quickly.  The last time I check, which was several years ago, the average length of time to trial from filing was only 8 months, which is almost unthinkably fast.  Many other Federal District Courts average well over 2 years, some even as long as 4 years.  What this means is that we should get to a resolution quickly, but if either the Patent Office doesn't voluntarily postpone enforcement of the new rules or the district court does not issue a preliminary injunction we may well get into the unenviable situation of having started complying with the rules only to have all or part of the rules overturned because the Patent Office does not have the authority to contradict legislation enacted by Congress.  From the standpoint of a commentator that would be a wonderful thing, but from the standpoint of a practicing attorney with clients who will be affected it would be a horrible disaster.

Read the full post here.