Under the America Invents Act, one of the new programs put into effect in 2011 was the Prioritized Examination Track. This Pilot Program allowed applicants to petition for special status in examination, placing it on a separate special docket with a goal of 12 months to issue.
In order to qualify, the applicant must comply with certain requirements. Most notably, they must pay an additional fee ($4,000). Additionally, the program limits the number of claims in the application to a maximum of 4 independent claims and 30 claims total.
The USPTO is expanding this program based on its tremendous popularity and success, with more applicants petitioning each year. The current expansion comes at a time when the USPTO would likely have met the previous maximum of 10,000 grants well before the end of the calendar year.
The increase went into effect on September 3, 2019 and affords more applicants the opportunity to take advantage of this growingly popular program. For more information or to see if Track 1 status may be right for your application, reach out to us at our contact page.
Category: Firm News