Number And Type Of Claims

All of the major countries allow both independent and dependent claims, but many of them are rather restrictive about the number of independent claims. Japan, for example, will try to keep the number of independent claims to about three. Most countries charge excess claim fees, both for excess independent claims and for excess dependent claims. Exemplary charges are listed below for excess dependent claims:

Almost all of the major countries allow multiple dependent claims. Such claims are disfavored in the U.S., where they are subject to a surcharge of several hundred dollars, and are counted as more than one claim for purposes of calculating excess claim fees. Foreign countries are more lenient with respect to multiple dependencies. In Japan and EPO, for example, there is no surcharge for multiple dependent claims, and each multiple dependent claim is counted as only a single claim for purposes of calculating excess claim fees. Japan even allows multiple dependent claims to be dependent upon each other, the so-called "multiple multiple" dependent claims.

Some examining offices, notably Japan and EPO, do not allow applicants to keep application alive simply by filing Requests For Continued Examination, or some equivalent. In those circumstances, the only way to maintain pendency in the face of continued rejections is to file a divisional, and such filings can sometimes only be pursued by filing new evidence or new data. Nevertheless, applications can be kept pending for a very long time. In Japan, the Kilby patent owned by Texas Instruments™ was filed in 1960 and patented in 1989. In 1998 our office secured a patent grant through the EPO on an application with priority back to 1987 . In 2001 our office secured a patent grant through the EPO on an application with priority back to 1984, 17 years earlier .