Welcome to the Malloy & Malloy, P.L.

Intellectual Property law Blog

Our goal is to provide some general information about recent developments and interesting news impacting Patent, Trademark and Copyright Issues.  Please feel free to check back often for the latest.

                      RSS Feed    

ARCHIVE  

 

Prioritized Patent Examination

04-05-2011 [Ben Hanrahan] [Permalink]

Yesterday the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("PTO") issued its final rule to implement "prioritized examination" upon payment of appropriate fees and compliance with specific requirements.  In particular, prioritized examination is only available to new, original utility or plant non-provisional patent applications filed on or after May 4, 2011 (the effective date of the final rule).  Additionally, the application must contain no more than four (4) independent claims, no more than thirty (30) total claims, and must be "complete," meaning it must be filed with an oath or declaration and must be accompanied with all filing fees including the $4,000 prioritized examination request fee.

The PTO's goal is to provide a final disposition within twelve (12) months from the date of receiving prioritized examination status.  The PTO will only grant prioritized examination to 10,000 applications for the remainder of fiscal year 2011.  

This prioritized examination is part of a three-track proposal designed to provide applicants with greater control over the speed in which their original utility or plant application is examined.  The proposed three-track system would allow an applicant to (1) request prioritized examination, (2) request delayed examination, or (3) obtain processing under the current examination procedure.  In light of overwhelming support for Track I, the PTO decided to implement prioritized examination now while it continues to review and revise the delayed examination proposal.

The Federal Register notice can be viewed here.