The PTO announced today a multi-tiered patent prosecution scheme that shortens the patent prosecution timeframe to 12 months provided the applicant pays a $4,000 government filing fee and limits the number of patent claims. If implemented, only the first 10,000 entrants into the program will be guaranteed acceptance until the pilot program is fully evaluated. Official PTO press release here.
AUTHOR’S COMMENT: More details are due out this Friday, but if a fast track is provided at higher cost it would only make sense to provide delayed or deferred prosecution at a lower cost to enable independent inventors and universities to preserve inventive rights while they see if there is commercial value to the technology.
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