Patent FAQ: How Can Technology Entrepreneurs Avoid USPTO Backlog Using Accelerated Examination?

Sadly, inventors and entrepreneurs are faced with a massive hurdle when it comes to forming intellectual property rights needed to support technologies based startup companies. According to data from the US Patent Office (USPTO), the current backlog of patent applications is more than 1,200,000 with extra than 700,000 not getting received a first Workplace Action, meaning your application is still in the pile. The total time to get a patent is reported by USPTO to average 34 months (i.e. pendency). Having said that, this number is an average that does not reflect the longer pendency commonly experienced by emerging technologies exactly where the number of applications is rapidly increasing. If you are CEO of a provider in a high-growth tech sector and program to introduce new items based on the invention inside 1 to 2 years, the prospect of a patent being issued 4 or five years soon after filing is almost irrelevant unless you are trying to raise capital.

The 2008 Berkeley Patent Survey, a national study of patents and entrepreneurship, reported that 75% of the executives at venture capital-backed startups think of patents to be an important factor in their financing choices. Investors are extremely conscious that less than half of the applications filed result in an issued patent. An indeterminate outcome for four or 5 years can represent a major road block to venture funding. In quickly emerging technologies sectors having a patent in hand could possibly make the distinction in getting funded or not.

What to do. Accelerated patent examination, available via the US Patent and Trademark Office, can be an superb resolution if prosecuted correctly. It supplies an opportunity to secure patent protection, ordinarily in significantly much less time as the standard approach. Till now, there was substantial uncertainty regarding meeting rather stringent requirements to qualify. You would not know going in if accelerated examination would be approved, even although substantial expense had been incurred attempting to comply with USPTO requirements.

The USPTO is now moving forward with implementation of Track 1 of a new 3 track patent processing program that will guarantee accelerated examination. Track 1 of this program will enable the applicant to pay a greater fee and receive faster examination. The fee is set at $4,000, but the USPTO might possibly obtain Congressional approval to allow for a 50% discount for little entities. The patent application ought to be an original utility or plant patent application. The number of independent claims is restricted to 4, with 30 total claims. The application can only be filed via the USPTO's electronic filing system. The application will get unique status throughout its entire course of prosecution. The aim is to get final disposition within 12 months. That does not mean you are guaranteed a patent, but you will have an answer sooner rather than later. If you will need a patent to support raising venture capital, then the new Track 1 procedure could possibly be the right selection. But act rapid. Only 10,000 applications will obtain Track 1 processing the 1st year.