407.05(b)    Application of Limit: Sets of Requests for Admission

The numerical limit specified in 37 C.F.R. § 2.120(i)  pertains to the total number of requests for admission that one party may serve on another party over the course of an entire proceeding, not just per set of requests for admission. Thus, if a party to a proceeding before the Board serves, over the course of the proceeding, two or more separate sets of requests for admission directed to the same party, the requests in the separate sets would be added together for purposes of determining whether the numerical limit specified in the rule has been exceeded. [ Note 1.]

Accordingly, a party which is preparing a first set of requests for admission should consider reserving a portion of its allotted 75 requests (counting subparts) to use for follow-up discovery, unless it is sure that it will not be serving follow-up requests for admission.

NOTES:

 1.   Cf. Baron Phillippe De Rothschild S.A. v. S. Rothschild & Co., 16 USPQ2d 1466, 1467 (TTAB 1990) (interrogatories).