The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) provides a “pay to go to the head of the line” option, known as “Track 1,” for patent applicants who wish to receive an earlier examination than if their application waited its turn in the normal backlog of applications, as well as a quicker turnaround time when a response to an office action is filed. Backlogs vary significantly based on art areas, so knowledge of likely wait times for the art area of the patent application should factor into the decision. Track 1 requests must be made at the time of filing an original application, or at the time of filing a request for continued examination (RCE), or after an RCE is filed but before receipt of an office action on the RCE. Accordingly, for originally filed applications, you cannot hedge your bets and wait to see the predicted time to first action after filing (which is provided by the USPTO on their website after pre-processing and classification docketing is completed), and then decide if the Track 1 request is worth filing. This article will focus on the request when filed with the application, which is the most common time for filing a Track 1 request.

A Track 1 request is not cheap, especially for a large entity. Currently, large entities must pay total government fees of $4,340 in addition to the normal application filing fees. Small entities must pay a more reasonable extra government fee of $2,170 in addition to the normal filing fees, which are also reduced by half compared to the large entity filing fees.