USPTO blinks in Tafas v. Kappos (Dudas)

Reuters reported on 8 Oct. 09: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has dropped regulations that sparked a lawsuit by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) and the two sides have asked a court to dismiss the suit, the patent office said on Thursday.[Oct. 8]

Reuters made it appear that Glaxo had carried the ball, rather than noting that Tafas was there first:

During the Bush administration, the Patent Office had set rules aimed at limiting the size of patent applications in hopes of reducing the time it takes to grant or reject a patent, now at about three years.

But Glaxo and other companies objected and sued the office seeking that the rules be overturned.

Reuters also wrote:

The rules had been designed to force companies to submit shorter patent applications, but a decision to make those rules retroactive prompted fears from companies like Glaxo that they would have to refile applications that exceeded the new limits.

Reuters suggested the continuation limits were secondary:

Another change would have put limits on "continuations," procedures that allow inventors to make follow-up filings.