Patent Quality Metrics for Fiscal Year 2017 and Request for Comments on Improving Patent Quality Measurement
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is revising its patent quality metrics to better identify quality-related issues and more clearly communicate its quality measurements to the public. The new patent quality metrics are part of the USPTO's Enhanced Patent Quality Initiative (EPQI), which was launched in 2015 to engage patent stakeholders in enhancing patent quality. As part of the Enhanced Patent Quality Initiative, the prior patent quality metrics have been reassessed, and new patent quality metrics are now being designed for adoption for fiscal year 2017. The new patent quality metrics for use in fiscal year 2017 are planned to focus on the correctness and clarity of Office actions and will be applied through a newly unified review process using a standardized review form that will permit data from a significantly larger number of finished product quality reviews conducted at the agency to be aggregated and mined for information. The USPTO will also mine data on transactions during patent prosecution (e.g., the types of actions taken by the applicant and the USPTO) to assess examination processes and identify potential quality issues requiring further study. The review process will apply the new quality metrics and standardized form to increase the accuracy, consistency, transparency, clarity, and simplicity of USPTO quality review procedures. The USPTO is seeking comment from its stakeholders on further improvements to the changes proposed herein.
- Task
- Read the news
- Patent or trademark
- both
- Legacy system
- —
- Current entry point
- www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/03/25/2016-06851/patent-quality-metrics-for-fiscal-year-2017-and-request-for-comments-on-improving-patent-quality (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
- 2016-03-25
- 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)
Related entry points
- Post-Prosecution Pilot Program
- Request for Comments on Enhancement in the Quality of Patents
- Expanded Collaborative Search Pilot Program
- Request for Submission of Topics for USPTO Quality Case Studies
- Changes To Practice for Continuing Applications, Requests for Continued Examination Practice, and Applications Containing Patentably Indistinct Claims
- Request for Comments and Notice of Roundtable Event on Leveraging Electronic Resources To Retrieve Information From Applicant's Other Applications and Streamline Patent Issuance
- Request for Comments on Enhancing Patent Quality
- Pilot Program for Extended Time Period To Reply to a Notice To File Missing Parts of Nonprovisional Application
- Changes To Implement the Prioritized Examination Track (Track I) of the Enhanced Examination Timing Control Procedures
- Trademark Fee Adjustment
- Extension of the Period for Comments on Enhancing Patent Quality
- Changes To Require Identification of Attributable Owner
- Expanded Collaborative Search Pilot Program Extension
- Setting and Adjusting Patent Fees During Fiscal Year 2017
- Changes To Eliminate Unnecessary Regulations
- Patents for Humanity Program