Increase of the Annual Limit on Accepted Requests for Track I Prioritized Examination
bis-export-control · US Patent and Trademark Office · Published 2019-09-03 · Effective 2019-09-03 · 84 FR 45907
Document
Document number
2019-18994
Federal Register citation
84 FR 45907
CFR reference
37 CFR 1
Type
Rule
Action
Interim rule.
Category
bis-export-control
Sub-agency
US Patent and Trademark Office
Publication date
2019-09-03
Effective date
2019-09-03
Commerce docket
Docket No. PTO-P-2019-0020
Abstract
The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (America Invents Act) includes provisions for prioritized examination of patent applications, which have been implemented by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office) in previous rulemakings. The America Invents Act provides that the Office may not accept more than 10,000 requests for prioritization in any fiscal year (October 1 to September 30) until regulations are prescribed setting another limit. This interim rule expands the availability of prioritized examination by increasing the limit on the number of prioritized examination requests that may be accepted in a fiscal year from 10,000 to 12,000.