USPTO Fast-Track Appeals Pilot Program
In the summer of 2020, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) initiated a new Fast-Track Appeals Pilot Program. A goal of this program is to reach a decision on an ex parte appeal before the PTAB within 6 months of the entry date into the Pilot Program. The first year of this new Pilot Program is concluded and the results are in! The average time to a decision on appeal under the Pilot Program was 2.2 months, compared to the average time to a decision on appeal of 13 to 14 months without the Pilot Program. Because the results exceeded expectations, the Pilot Program is extended and will run until at least July 2, 2022.
In the first year of the program, the USPTO had an intake of over 4,000 appeals and the Pilot Program had 500 available slots to fast-track an appeal. In this quarter, there are 117 slots available for the Pilot Program, but only 9 petitions are filed. There are plenty of available slots to take advantage of this new program.
Read more about the Fast-Track Appeals Pilot Program and appeals here:
Article:
https://www.uspto.gov/patents/ptab/fast-track-appeals-pilot-program
Original Fed. Reg. Notice:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-07-02/pdf/2020-14244.pdf
USPTO appeals data:
https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/appeal_and_interferenc_statistics_june2021.pdf
