David Kappos announced on his public Blog, (March 30,2010) that only the Chief Judge and his staff will conduct a compliance review of appeal briefs at the time of filing. This new process eliminates 2 layers of review; the examiner and the Patent Appeal Center. This should reduce processing time and yield more uniform decisions on formalities compliance.
To further reduce the number of noncompliant appeal briefs, the Chief Judge has posted on the USPTO website the “Top Eight Reasons Appeal Briefs are Non-Compliant”—which applicants should read closely to avoid the common mistakes that result in defective briefs and delays.
Blog post is here http://www.uspto.gov/blog/director/entry/streamlining_the_appeals_process_and
