Prioritized Patent Application Examination for Covid-19 Inventions

US Patent Office will Prioritize Patent Application Examination for Covid-19 Inventions

A frequent complaint I hear from my clients is why does the Patent Office take so long to examine my patent application?

The patent office puts all patent applications into a queue for examination. There is a separate queue for each technology. The Patent Examiners in that technology group examines the patent applications in the order received.

The average queue is 12 to 18 months long. However, I have seen queues as long as long as 4 to 5 years in some technologies.

You can, however, jump the line, using the Patent Office’s “Track One” procedures to purchase prioritized examination. A prioritized examination patent typically gets its “final disposition” (the patent office decides if you will get a patent or not) within 12 months. However, Track One comes with a hefty fee, of many thousands of dollars.

There are other ways to obtain prioritized examination from the US Patent Office. A most commonly used way is by establishing that an Inventor is over 65. Inventors who are over 65 years old can receive free prioritized examination.

Enter the covid-19 pandemic, and a new free way to jump the Patent Office’s examination line. The patent office today announced a covid- 19 prioritized examination pilot program. Patent applications which cover “a product or process related to COVID-19”, and where the product or is “subject to an applicable FDA approval for COVID-19 use”, can receive free prioritized examination. Interestingly, the patent office is only granting this free examination to those who qualify for small or micro entity status, that is only to the little guys.

The patent office says that if we respond quickly to our notices and actions, that they can provide you with a granted patent within 6 months.

So in summary, if you have a Covid 19 invention, we could conceivably patent it much more quickly than you might have otherwise thought.

At Harris IP Law, we are committed to excellence and have been successfully representing clients since 2007. We take pride in fast and excellent work, and fair, upfront pricing.