On July 6, 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit agreed to rehear a case challenging new regulations issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) that would severely restrict the number of “continuation” applications an inventor may file based on its original patent application. The decision to rehear the case was a victory for WLF, which had filed a brief urging the appeals court to reconsider an earlier 2-1 decision upholding the regulations. The case will now be reheard en banc, meaning that all the judges on the Federal Circuit will hear it. WLF argued that the new PTO rules impose onerous burdens on patent applicants, thereby discouraging inventors from seeking patent protection. WLF also argued that if potential inventors come to believe that obtaining complex patents is too onerous, they may be discouraged from investing the time and resources to develop new technology – a result that cannot be good from a societal standpoint.