Notice Regarding the Elimination of the Fee for Petitions To Make Special Filed Under the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Programs
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is eliminating the fee for the petition to make special under the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) programs. Currently, applicants must pay a petition fee under 37 CFR 1.17(h) to have an application to enter into the PPH program. With the elimination of the fee, applicants will no longer have to pay the petition to make special fee in order to request an application enter all current pilot and fully implemented PPH programs. The elimination of the petition fee will simplify the PPH requirements and is expected to encourage greater PPH participation. Since 2006, the USPTO has implemented the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) programs with a number of patent offices as part of efforts to pursue work sharing to avoid duplication of work among patent offices, and for reducing its own pendency and backlog. Notices regarding the PPH programs are available on the USPTO Web site at: http://www.uspto.gov/patents/init_events/pph/index.jsp. Until now, the PPH notices have indicated that a request for participation in the PPH program must be accompanied by a petition to make special under 37 CFR 1.102(d) along with the required petition fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(h). The PPH applications have proven, on average, to take significantly less time to prosecute than non-PPH applications. Using the PPH process also increases the sharing and re-use of information (primarily search and examination results) between the USPTO and its partner patent offices. Improving the PPH framework to make it more user-friendly, and thereby encourage greater participation by applicants, would support the Office's goal to optimize both the quality and timeliness of patents. Therefore, the USPTO has determined that all PPH applications will now be advanced out of turn for examination under 37 CFR 1.102(a) in order to expedite the business of the Office. Applications that are advanced out of turn under 37 CFR 1.102(a) do not require the petition fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(h). Previously, applications were advanced out of turn under 37 CFR 1.102(d).
- Task
- Read the news
- Patent or trademark
- both
- Legacy system
- —
- Current entry point
- www.federalregister.gov/documents/2010/05/25/2010-12471/notice-regarding-the-elimination-of-the-fee-for-petitions-to-make-special-filed-under-the-patent (permanent link in the Federal Register, verified 2026-09-30)
- Legacy system and where it moved
- No legacy system name mention in title or summary )
- Fee
- Fee mentioned in title or summary (Confirmed in the document text)
- What you need (account or API key)
- No account or key mention in title or summary )
- Published
- 2010-05-25
- Document type
- Notice
- Source
- USPTO documents published in the Federal Register (Federal Register API)(retrieved 2026-10-06)
Everything in the same category
Read the news (all 1988) · both (all 2333)
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