Patent lawyers started breathing again Wednesday, as the specter of new patent rules was chased away -- at least for a little while -- by a Virginia court.

U.S. District Judge James Cacheris granted pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline's motion for a preliminary injunction blocking the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from implementing rules set to go into effect today.

The new rules would reduce the number of claims, which help define a patent, and the number of continuations, which are used to amend patent claims and contest those that are rejected. Claims would be limited to 25, and continuations to just three. The current rules imposed no limits.

"I won't be alone in being among the patent attorneys who are very pleased with the injunction that was granted today," said Neil Smith, a veteran IP lawyer at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton in San Francisco. "Anyone who cares about the strength of patents and about innovation itself saw those rules as causing some real problems -- it's a good day for the patent system."

The patent office says the rule changes are meant to speed up the patent process and eliminate the enormous backlog of applications. But opponents say the changes could weaken patents by not allowing sufficient continuances to cover ever-evolving innovations. They also say the new rules would have unfairly been retroactive on pending applications.

Notice how patent attorneys engage in Orewllian Newspeak talking about the "strength of patents" and "innovation". Always have to read between the lines with them - much like politicians.

Read the whole article here.