Examination of Patent Applications That Include Claims Containing Alternative Language
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is proposing to revise the rules of practice pertaining to any claim using alternative language to claim one or more species. The search and examination of such claims often consume a disproportionate amount of Office resources as compared to other types of claims, because determining the patentability of these claims often requires a separate examination of each of the alternatives within the claims. The Office expects that requiring applicants who choose to draft claims that read on multiple species using alternative language to maintain a certain degree of relatedness among the alternatives will enable the Office to do a more thorough and more reliable examination of such claims.
- Task
- Read the news
- Patent or trademark
- both
- Legacy system
- —
- Current entry point
- www.federalregister.gov/documents/2007/08/10/E7-15591/examination-of-patent-applications-that-include-claims-containing-alternative-language (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
- 2007-08-10
- Document type
- Proposed Rule
- Source
- USPTO documents published in the Federal Register (Federal Register API)(retrieved 2026-10-06)
Everything in the same category
Read the news (all 1988) · both (all 2333)
Related entry points
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- Examination of Patent Applications That Include Claims Containing Alternative Language
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- Patents for Humanity Program
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