Enhanced Examination Timing Control Initiative; Notice of Public Meeting

This notice announces a public meeting to solicit public opinions on an initiative being considered by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to provide applicants with greater control over when their applications are examined and to enhance work sharing between intellectual property offices. Under the initiative, for applications filed in the USPTO that are not based on a prior foreign- filed application (e.g., that do not claim foreign priority benefit), applicant would be able to: (1) Request prioritized examination (Track I); (2) for non-continuing applications, request a delay lasting up to 30 months in docketing for examination (Track III); or (3) obtain processing under the current procedure (Track II) by not requesting either (1) or (2). For applications filed in the USPTO that are based on a prior foreign-filed application, no action would be taken by the USPTO until the USPTO receives a copy of the search report, if any, and first office action from the foreign office and an appropriate reply to the foreign office action as if the foreign office action was made in the application filed in the USPTO. Following or concurrent with the submission of the foreign office action and reply, applicant may request prioritized examination or obtain processing under the current procedure. This initiative aims both to provide applicants with the type of examination they need and to reduce the overall pendency of patent applications (which currently stands at almost three years). Overall pendency would be decreased in three ways: (1) Increased resources in Track 1 would result in increased output; (2) reuse of search and examination work done by other offices would result in greater efficiency; and (3) applicants who chose Track III because their applications were of lower value might ultimately decide not to pursue their application examination efforts that had been expended on the applications. As a part of the three-tracks, an applicant may request and pay for a supplemental search from a participating intellectual property granting office. Any member of the public may submit written comments on this initiative being considered by the USPTO.

Task: Read the news
Patent or trademark: both
Legacy system: —
Current entry point: www.federalregister.gov/documents/2010/06/04/2010-13244/enhanced-examination-timing-control-initiative-notice-of-public-meeting (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: No fee mention in title or summary )
What you need (account or API key): No account or key mention in title or summary )
Published: 2010-06-04
Document type: Notice
Source: USPTO documents published in the Federal Register (Federal Register API)(retrieved 2026-10-06)

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