Under 35 U.S.C Section 154, patentees are entitled to patent term adjustment (“PTA”) to remedy certain delays attributable to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) that occurred during the prosecution of the patent. Specifically, Section 154 contains three guarantees to patent applicants regarding the expediency with which their patent applications will be handled: the “A guarantee” under Section 154(b)(1)(A) of prompt USPTO examination and response time; the “B guarantee” under Section 154(b)(1)(B) of no more than a three-year application pendency; and the “C guarantee” under Section 154(b)(1)(C) of adjustments for delays due to interferences, secrecy orders, and appeals. In the event of any delays by the USPTO under these guarantees (each, an “A delay,” “B delay,” and “C delay,” respectively), a patentee is entitled to an additional day of patent term for each day by which prosecution of the patent application was delayed. Patent term adjustments are important because under the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999, the term of a U.S. patent was changed from 17 years from the grant date to 20 years from the earliest effective filing date . Accordingly,any delay in the prosecution of a patent application effectively reduces the term of the issued patent under this statute.

Any patent term adjustments made pursuant to Section 154 are reduced by certain applicant-attributable delays during the patent application process. The adjustments are also subject to an overlap reduction: “To the extent that periods of delay attributable to grounds specified in [Section 154(b)(1)] overlap, the period of adjustment granted under this subsection shall not exceed the actual number of days the issuance of the patent was delayed.”

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