New USPTO Rules for “Track I” Fast-Track Patent Processing
United States patent and trademark office made changes to the rules to allow inventors to pay a fee to cut the line and get their patents examined sooner.
Following passage of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act in September 2011, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) began accepting requests for prioritized examination of patent applications through the Track I Prioritized Patent Examination Program.
Simply put, Track I allows inventors and businesses, for a fee, to have their patents processed to completion in 12 months. No examination support documents or other admissions are required. But be aware that this has a hefty $4800 fee.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced final rule change permitting applicants to request prioritized examination for applications after the filing of a request for continued examination. The changes in this final rule are applicable to any patent application in which a proper request for continued examination has been filed before, on, or after Dec. 19, 2011.
“Our goal is to continually provide patent applicants with a variety of processing options that are more responsive to their real-world needs,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO David Kappos.
Under the procedure set forth in this final rule, once the application is accorded special status after the filing of a request for continued examination it will be placed on the examiner’s special docket throughout its entire course of continued prosecution before the examiner until a final disposition is reached in the application.
