A federal judge has delayed new Patent and Trademark Office rules that were scheduled to go into effect tomorrow, according to the PLI Blog. Citing a threat to its rights to inventions, Glaxo filed a lawsuit this month, seeking to prevent the USPTO from moving forward. US District Court Judge Jim Cacheris in Virginia didn’t make any statements about the likely merits of the case when making his ruling from the bench. He will, however, be issuing a formal written opinion which will be entered sometime this afternoon, PLI reports.

At issue is a new rule concerning the continuation of patent applications. Current US patent law allows an inventor to file several different types of patent applications to cover new improvements to their inventions, or to cover different aspects of their inventions. One type is a challenge, or continuation. The new rule would reduce the number of times a patent applicant can contest or amend rejected or pending patent claims.

Glaxo claims the new rules are arbitrary and will prevent it from pursuing patent applications and obtaining patents on or more of its inventions, especially since the drugmaker has hundreds of various types of applications in the works. In essence, Glaxo fears the new rules will make it harder to make such filings, therefore threatening its investments.

Want to read the judge’s ruling? Take a look - all 39 pages.

A few days ago, by the way, Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senator from New York, wrote a letter to Jon Dudas, a PTO official, suggesting a delay. To bolster his reasoning, Chuck cited the Glaxo litigation. And he argued that Congress is considering a patent reform bill that may address the issues raised in the PTO’s new rules. “A delay would allow the courts to assess the merits of the pending suit,” he wrote. “The proposed rules may have the unintended consequence of stifling such innovation and I urge you to delay their implementation.”