NAIP Group – Patent, Trademark, Intellectual Property Services

In this decision, the Board reversed an Examiner’s rejection of claims for reciting improper Markush groupings. The decision holds that a Markush grouping is proper if it recites members of a subgenus and the specification describes those recited members as performing similar functions in the context of the invention.

To increase efficiency and lower costs, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is updating its process for filing patent applications and documents in DOCX format through Patent Center. When a patent application is being filed in DOCX format through Patent Center, the system will no longer convert the DOCX files into Portable Document Format (PDF) files during the pre-submission process. Instead, documents being filed in DOCX format will be converted directly to Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) during the pre-submission process and applicants may review the TIFF files prior to filing. Applicants will still have the option to download a copy of the documents in PDF after submission.