Comments to the USPTO on Improving Patent Quality

Tracy-Gene G. Durkin, Daniel A. Gajewski, Ivy Clarice Estoesta, and Chase D. Hammond provided comments to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in response to the Office's Request for Submission of Topics for USPTO Quality Case Studies, Fed. Reg. Vol 80, No. 244 (December 21, 2015). 

Five case study topics were submitted to the USPTO. The first four topics relate primarily to design patent applications, and the final applies to both utility and design patent applications.

Topic titles include:

• Requiring changes to design application drawings in Ex parte Quayle actions and notices of allowance
• New matter rejections for changing line types in design applications
• Objecting to priority, rather than issuing a § 112 rejection, based on an assertion of new matter introduced by amendment in continuing design applications
• Drawing objections and new matter rejections for changing broken-line weight or pattern in design applications
• Obvious-type double patenting rejections citing a primary reference that may be a statutory bar (i.e., a pre-AIA § 102(b) or AIA § 102(a)(1) reference published more than one year before the effective filing date of an application being examined) against an application