No more first office actions for applications with 25+ claims?October 16, 2007

As noted on Patently-O, it appears the USPTO has stopped issuing first office actions on the merits in applications that exceed the 5/25 claim limitations. An example:

PAIR image

This news, combined with the fact that the new rules may be considered by USPTO management as their fix for the Office's examination woes, expect the Office to vigorously defend the new rules in court.

Update (10/17): Looks like this can now be treated as confirmed.

Further update (10/18): see this post for more developments.

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