ALEXANDRIA, VA. (CN) – An inventor has sued the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, challenging new regulations that will limit the number of continuations an inventor can file on an original patent. Plaintiff Triantafyllos Tafas has eight patents and 17 patents pending. He asks the Federal Court to enjoin Sections 1.75 and 1.78 of 72 Fed Reg. No. 161, promulgated on Aug. 21, to take effect Nov. 1, claiming they violate the Patent Act and the Constitution. The revised rules “limit the right of a patent applicant to continue prosecution of applications related to a single invention … substantially change the regulatory landscape under which inventors … have traditionally operated, and, once effective, will frustrate the purposes of the U.S. Patent laws by preventing Dr. Tafas and other similarly situated inventors from realizing the full economic potential of their work.”
Courthouse news has posted a copy of the actual complaint here. [PDF file link.
By the way, just how many patents does Adobe claim are contained in its Reader program? Try to count them as the PDF Reader program loads up.]
