USPTO has made a few changes relating to practice for continued examination filings, patent applications containing patentably indistinct claims and examination of claims in patent applications. As per the change relating to examination of claims, the USPTO allows an applicant to file 5 independent claims and a total of 25 claims in a single application or 15 independent claims or a total of 75 claims in three applications including two continuation applications without any additional document. If the total number of independent claims exceeds 5 and the total number of claims exceeds 25 in a single application or if the number of independent claims exceeds 15 or the total number of claims exceeds 75 in three applications, the applicant is required to file an examination support document covering all of the claims in the patent application. The examination support document should provide the most relevant prior art and its relevance to the claims in the patent application. The examination support document must be filed before the issuance of a first office action on the merits of an application.

The European Commission (EC) has alleged that Ranbus' act of not disclosing its patents in the DRAM standard violates EU competition law.  EC was of the opinion that Ranbus engaged in deceptive conduct by not disclosing that it owned patents relating to standards during the standard setting process and by later claiming royalties over its patents relevant to standards. Ranbus had faced similar issues in USA also. Few months back, the Federal Trade Commission in USA passed an order requiring Ranbus to license its patents relating to DRAM technology to other players at a fixed royalty. The act of Ranbus is generally referred to as 'Patent Ambush'.