Patent Issuance: Not Novel and Non-obvious

The US Patent Office (USPTO) recently issued patent number 7,000,000. It has taken seventy-five years to go from patent number 1 to number 1,000,000 while it has taken less than one-tenth of the time to go from number 6,000,000 to number 7,000,000. Without a doubt the USPTO is swamped and without sufficient resources to process applications in a timely manner.

Subsequently the USPTO is proposing to revise certain rules to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the exchange of information between applicant and examiner with a particular emphasis on continuation and continuation-in-part applications via the inclusion of additional claim support documentation.

You can read the specifics in the Federal Register here and here.