Changes to Practice for the Examination of Claims in Patent Applications

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is proposing to revise the rules of practice relating the examination of claims in patent applications. The Office is proposing to focus its initial examination on the claims designated by the applicant as representative claims. The representative claims will be all of the independent claims and only the dependent claims that are expressly designated by the applicant for initial examination. The Office is also proposing that if an application contains more than ten independent claims (a rare occurrence), or if the applicant wishes to have initial examination of more than ten representative claims, then the applicant must provide an examination support document that covers all of the independent claims and the dependent claims designated for initial examination. The changes proposed in this notice will allow the Office to do a better, more thorough and reliable examination since the number of claims receiving initial examination will be at a level which can be more effectively and efficiently evaluated by an examiner. Comment Deadline Date: To be ensured of consideration, written comments must be received on or before May 3, 2006. No public hearing will be held.

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Patent or trademark: both
Legacy system: —
Current entry point: www.federalregister.gov/documents/2006/01/03/05-24529/changes-to-practice-for-the-examination-of-claims-in-patent-applications (permanent link in the Federal Register, verified 2026-09-30)
Legacy system and where it moved: No legacy system name mention in title or summary )
Fee: No fee mention in title or summary )
What you need (account or API key): No account or key mention in title or summary )
Published: 2006-01-03
Document type: Proposed Rule
Source: USPTO documents published in the Federal Register (Federal Register API)(retrieved 2026-10-06)

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