OBSERVATION: Track One: I recently extolled the virtues of paying an added fee at filing of your application in order to be placed on the UPSTO “Track One” Program for expedited review. See my article “Priority Review, Move to the Front of the Line”. I reviewed the file wrapper history of a patent case filed on…
prioritized examination
Priority Review: Move to Front of Line
INTRODUCTION: The wait time between filing you patent application and the first office action can be frustratingly long. Priority Review Track One. See my earlier article for Expedited Examination. The duration depends upon the Group Art Unit (GAU) to which your application has been assigned. You may have limited ability to influence the GAU to which your application is…
Expediting Patent Examination
Introduction I typically estimate that the patent examination requires 2 or 3 years from filing to allowance of a patent. However the duration of patent prosecution is often longer for applications pertaining to business methods, e-commerce and document processing. There are procedures to expedite or accelerate patent examination. The USPTO provides two options intended to expedite…
PRIORITIZED EXAMINATION
Introduction The USPTO is sensitive to the time delays experienced in the prosecution of patent applications. Prosecution of a utility application can exceed two to three years. The Patent Office has tried various methods to accelerate the process. For example, certain medical applications, environmental applications, and elderly inventors can receive priority. The Patent Office now…