A common complaint received from clients regarding the patent system is that it is too complicated and too costly — a perception that in the past has had some basis in reality. Often implicit or explicit in this complaint is that the process of procuring a patent does not meet the business needs of the client. Typically, a client wants to decrease the time from filing a patent application to the grant of a patent. In many instances, the increased satisfaction of receiving an issued patent in the desired timeframe obviates many client complaints, and may even overcome complaints regarding cost.
There are now more than a few procedures for adjusting the pace of examination, including a process for suspending prosecution under limited circumstances, and a number of acceleration procedures available in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office under specialized circumstances, e.g., a petition to make special based on age (which I have learned from personal communication should cause the application to be acted upon within two weeks) and various pilot programs such as the Green Technology Pilot Program and the Project Exchange program, and the Patent Prosecution Highway. The Patent Prosecution Highway is an accelerated examination procedure that is growing in its use at the USPTO; however, this requires the allowance of at least one claim in a counterpart foreign application and that the U.S. claims be substantially conformed thereto. The following focuses on the advantages of the Track I prioritized examination procedure.
