US Patent Applications - New US Government Strategy

For an inventor outside of the United States of America, a US patent application can be cost-successfully filed either just before the 12 month deadline of their domestic patent application, for example, a UK patent application, or inside 30 months of the priority date of their PCT worldwide patent application.

Nevertheless, the U.S Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") is currently estimated to have a backlog of about 700,000 patent applications which are waiting for examination. With this in thoughts, an applicant is presently getting to wait almost three years from filing to obtain grant of their patent.

In comparison to a UK patent application which can take up to 4 and a half years from filing to grant and to a European patent application which can take 4 or significantly more years from filing to grant, this is nonetheless comparatively speedy.

But, in contrast to the UK and Europe patent procedures, there is no distinct request accessible for expedited examination, unless an applicant is more than a particular age or the invention relates to a 'green' technology. In the UK, a an applicant can request accelerated examination if a licence agreement is accessible, or if infringement is of a concern. In Europe, the PACE request can be utilized to accelerate the European application procedure without requiring any distinct cause.

So, in a bid to lower the waiting time that applicants of US patent applications face, the White Home has released its "Strategy for American Innovation".

The strategy consists of a 3-Track initiative. In Track 1, an applicant can choose to pay a premium for accelerated examination, enabling their patent to concern 12 months from its filing date.

In Track two, their patent will be examined as per the existing procedure.

Track three, which is the slowest and least costly, delays examination by up to 30 months even more than the existing process.

Overall, the Technique aims to decrease the backlog of patent applications and the typical delay of getting a patent to grant to 20 months by 2015.

The Strategy for American Innovation system will enable firms to prioritise their applications, with those regarded as most beneficial to have the potential to grant most easily. Patent portfolios can be built up at a more quickly rate and the Method for American Innovation gives extra flexibility in controlling the costs involved with acquiring a granted US patent.

The money raised from those paying the premium related with Track 1 will be utilised by the USPTO to strengthen and upgrade their in-residence systems, and to make it possible to carry out this quickly-track examination of patents. The USPTO is also preparing to employ an added 1 thousand patent examiners more than the next two years, and the Technique also contains a post-grant evaluation process to increase the quality of the patents.