Halloween 2007 is marked forever as a red-letter day in the rebellion of IP owners and the patent bar against the Patent and Trademark Office. GlaxoSmithKline won a preliminary injunction in federal district court in Virginia, stopping the agency from putting into force its new rules that limit the number of claims and continuations in patent applications [see "Fearless," page 50].
But not all of the PTO’s efforts to reduce its backlog are so wildly controversial. In September the PTO and its counterpart in the United Kingdom launched a one-year pilot program that offers a “fast track” for patent applications filed with one agency after being initially approved by the other. The U.K. thus becomes the second country to participate in the Patent Prosecution Highway, as the fast-track initiative is called. The Japan Patent Office signed on in July 2006. The U.S.Japan arrangement, which was also originally a one-year trial, has been extended at least through the end of this year. Discussions are under way with several other foreign patent offices, including the European Patent Office, to join the PTO as a “highway” partner, according to Charles Eloshway, a PTO attorney.
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