Patently-O Bits and Bytes No. 20

• SurveyMonkey: I am conducting an anonymous FOUR MINUTE readership survey.  Please help me to figure out who reads Patently-O and how you read Patently-O.  In a future survey, I’ll get your help improving the site. [Please Take the Survey]
• 3/11/08 11:00 am: Over 1000 folks have submitted to the survey. Major comments (1) need a better way to forward interesting posts; (2) Need threaded and rated comments. 65% of readers have more than five years of IP law experience.
• Bye Bye Markush: The USPTO has published its “Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis” of the proposed changes to Markush Claims. [IRFA][Proposed Rules]. According to the PTO, about 22% of all patent applications contain affected claims, with the highest percentages in Biotech and Chemical cases. The proposed rules would limit Markush alternatives only to those that are not overlapping and that do not make the claim difficult to construe. There is still some time to comment on the changes.