Many first-time applicants are surprised by the length of time it takes for a U.S. patent application to issue as a U.S. Patent.\u00a0 The USPTO tracks application pendency in terms of the average number of months between two specified events during the prosecution process. Among the key measures tracked are first action pendency (average number of months from the patent application filing to issuance of a first Office Action) and traditional total pendency (average number of months from the patent application filing to a final disposition).<\/p>\n
These numbers vary depending on the technology area, and as of December 2017, the first action pendency and the traditional total pendency are approximately 16 months and 24 months, respectively (source: USPTO Dashboard retrieved January 2018). The USPTO indicated that it aims to reduce the first action pendency to an average of 10 months and the traditional total pendency to an average of 20 months by the year 2019.<\/p>\n
This length of time may still be unsatisfactory for applicants who require assurance of an issued U.S. Patent quickly. For them, a number of USPTO programs are in place to expedite prosecution. Four are discussed here: (1) Petition to Make Special, (2) Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), (3) Track One (Prioritized Examination), and (4) Accelerated Examination.<\/p>\n
(1) Petition to Make Special<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n U.S. nonprovisional applications are normally taken up for examination by the assigned examiner in the order in which they have been filed. However, a granted Petition to Make Special will advance an application out of turn for examination or further action. The petition fee is low (currently $140 for a non-small entity) to none, depending on the grounds for according the application special status.<\/p>\n A Petition to Make Special may be filed without a petition fee if the basis for the petition is the applicant\u2019s age (65 or older) or health; or that the invention will materially enhance the quality of the environment, contribute to the development or conservation of energy resources, or contribute to countering terrorism. Other examples of grantable petitions include those based on manufacture, infringement, recombinant DNA, superconductivity materials, HIV\/AIDS, cancer, and biotechnology applications filed by small entities, or when the invention is deemed of particular importance, and the head of a department of the Government requests immediate action for that reason.<\/p>\n Despite being quicker than non-expedited cases, this option can be slower than the Track One and the Accelerated Examination programs discussed below, which seek to provide a final disposition within 12 months, and will often see a first action on the merits within months of application filing. In comparison, the Petition to Make Special itself<\/em> can often take months to be granted, after which the application can be advanced out of turn for examination or further action.<\/p>\n (2)<\/u><\/strong> Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n PPH may be used to speed up the examination process for U.S. applications with counterparts in foreign intellectual property offices. Under PPH, participating patent offices have agreed that when an applicant receives a final ruling from a first patent office that at least one claim is allowed, the applicant may request fast track examination of corresponding claim(s) in a corresponding patent application pending in a second patent office. There is no fee for making this request.<\/p>\n