Buying Time: Patent Office Seeks Comments on Three-Track Program

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) invites public comment on a proposed new patent examination initiative that would provide applicants greater control over the speed with which their applications are examined and promote greater efficiency in the patent examination process. The new "Three-Track" program aims both to provide applicants with the timing of examination they need and to reduce pendency of patent applications.

Under the proposed "Three-Track" initiative, for applications filed first in the United States, an applicant may request:

• Track I:  prioritized examination;
• Track II:  traditional examination under the current procedures;
• Track III:  for non-continuing applications first filed in the USPTO, an applicant-controlled delay for up to 30 months prior to docketing for examination.

Under Track I as proposed, applicants who request prioritized examination would be required to pay a fee set to recover the cost to the agency of maintaining the planned pendency of non-prioritized applications while expediting the examination of the prioritized application.  Input from the public on the technologies where the prioritization requests are most likely will be useful in setting this fee. The goals for handling applications in this queue would be to provide a first Office action on the merits within four months and a final disposition within 12 months of prioritized status being granted.

Overall pendency would be decreased in four ways:

• Increased resources in Track I would result in increased output;
• Reuse of search and examination work done by other offices would result in greater efficiency;
• Applicants who chose Track III because their applications were of questionable value might ultimately not pursue their application examination; and,
• Applicants with applications first filed abroad might ultimately not pursue their application examination.

Public input also is requested on a proposal to provide for supplemental searches performed by other intellectual property granting offices at an applicant's request. 

A public meeting will be held on July 20 at 1:30 p.m. at the USPTO's Madison building, 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, Virginia.  Those interested in attending the meeting must register by 5:00 p.m. (EDT) July 16.

Written comments must be submitted by August 20, 2010.

Additional details on the program are available in the June 4, 2010 edition of the Federal Register, under the title "Enhanced Examination Timing Control Initiative:" http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/2010-13244.htm.