July/August 2009 / Features
What Can Be Done to Accelerate Issuance of Your Patents
The backlog of patent applications pending in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is long and getting longer. Average time to get through examination is now three and a half years, and in some specialized areas it’s considerably longer.
The authors discuss how the PTO has heretofore tried to accelerate the process without much success. They go on to detail the so-called Patent Prosecution Highway, a new program that in their view looks more promising. The PPH is a joint program involving the PTO and patent offices in the United Kingdom, China, Japan, Korea, Canada, Australia, Germany, as well as the European Patent Office. Under the program, if a patent issues in one of these jurisdictions, the applicant can apply for expedited examination in the PTO, possibly shaving years off the time required to get a U.S. patent.
Before entering into the program, parties need to consider several important issues, according to the authors. In deciding which is the best country for first filing, they must “strike the right balance between speed, cost, and quality of examination.” Some countries may be more hospitable to certain technologies, for example, and translation costs obviously need to be worked into the equation. Quality of local counsel can be a crucial factor, especially if one wants to insure maximizing the scope of the patent.
