The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) decided to withdraw a proposed rule that was aimed at adding a new requirement for terminal disclaimers to address nonstatutory double patenting. This proposal was initially published in the Federal Register on May 10, 2024, and received over 300 comments during the open comment period, which ended on July 9, 2024. After considering the feedback and due to resource constraints, the USPTO chose not to proceed with this rule at the moment. However, they acknowledged the input from stakeholders and emphasized their commitment to maintaining a balanced and reliable intellectual property system.
Simple Explanation
The USPTO decided not to go ahead with a new rule about how to handle cases where two patents seem too similar. They received a lot of comments from people and didn't have enough resources to move forward right now.