The director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), David Kappos, appears to have listened to feedback from large entities wanting to take advantage of the Project Exchange program ("Program").1 On May 17, 2010, Director Kappos announced that the Program will be expanded to include all applicants and will be extended until December 31, 2010. Click here to read the USPTO's Press Release. The Program was open previously only to small entity applicants and was set to expire June 30, 2010. If the general guidelines of the Program remain unchanged from those in previous versions of the Program, all applicants will be able to petition to make an application special and have it advance to the front of the examination queue provided the applicant expressly abandons a co-pending application.2 Thus, a patent application may be examined sooner by the USPTO, and consequently a patent may issue sooner under the Program than under normal procedures.
One notable limitation that was added under the expanded Program, according to the USPTO's press release, is that the Program will be limited initially to 15 applications per entity. The USPTO soon will make available additional details on the expanded Program in the Federal Register and on the USPTO web site.
As we noted previously, the expansion to include all applicants as well as the extension of time may further increase the chances that Director Kappos' goals of acceleration and backlog reduction will be achieved by increasing the number of applicants that qualify under the Program and by providing additional time to opt into the program.3
Please stand-by as we keep you updated on future developments in this backlog reduction area.
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1 The "Project Exchange" program was referred to previously as the Patent Application Backlog Reduction Stimulus Plan.
2 The abandoned application must have either common ownership or a common inventor and must have been pending at the time of the implementation of this program.
3 Extended Voyage: Accelerate Examination Plan Gets an Extension. For more background on the plan see Clearing the Shipping Lanes: Reduce Backlog to Accelerate Examination.
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