Expanded Collaborative Search Pilot Program
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) conducted two separate Collaborative Search Pilot Programs (CSPs) during the period of 2015 through 2017. One of these programs was conducted with the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the other with the Korean Intellectual Patent Office (KIPO). Improvements in patent quality and examination pendency were identified as positive outcomes from these two original CSPs. Building on the success of these two programs, the USPTO is participating in a new, expanded CSP (Expanded CSP) in which applicants may request that multiple partnering Intellectual Property (IP) offices exchange search results for their counterpart applications prior to formulating and issuing their office actions. In Expanded CSP, each designated partner IP office will independently conduct a prior art search for its corresponding counterpart application. The search results will then be exchanged between the designated partner IP office(s) and the USPTO before any IP office issues an office action. By this exchange of search results, the examiners in all designated partner IP offices will have a more comprehensive set of prior art references to consider when making initial patentability determinations. In addition to changing the number of IP offices that may be providing search results to the USPTO, Expanded CSP provides applicants with more flexibility by not requiring that applicants follow the procedures of the First Action Interview Pilot Program (FAI). Expanded CSP will allow the USPTO to study the impact on examination processes resulting from exchanges of search results between the USPTO and multiple partner IP offices prior to formulating and issuing office actions.
- Task
- Read the news
- Patent or trademark
- both
- Legacy system
- —
- Current entry point
- www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/10/30/2017-23661/expanded-collaborative-search-pilot-program (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
- 2017-10-30
- 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
- Expanded Collaborative Search Pilot Program Extension
- United States Patent and Trademark Office and Korean Intellectual Property Office Collaborative Search Pilot Program
- United States Patent and Trademark Office and Japan Patent Office Collaborative Search Pilot Program
- Extension of, and New Combined Petition Option for Participation in, the Expanded Collaborative Search Pilot Program
- Elimination of Publication Requirement in the Collaborative Search Pilot Program Between the Japan Patent Office and the United States Patent and Trademark Office
- Changes To Practice for Continuing Applications, Requests for Continued Examination Practice, and Applications Containing Patentably Indistinct Claims
- Patent Quality Metrics for Fiscal Year 2017 and Request for Comments on Improving Patent Quality Measurement
- Extension of the Full First Action Interview Pilot Program and Request for Comments
- Expanded Collaborative Search Pilot Program-New Combined Petition Option for Participation
- Changes To Facilitate Applicant's Authorization of Access to Unpublished U.S. Patent Applications by Foreign Intellectual Property Offices
- Changes To Facilitate Applicant's Authorization of Access to Unpublished U.S. Patent Applications by Foreign Intellectual Property Offices
- Notice Regarding the Elimination of the Fee for Petitions To Make Special Filed Under the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Programs
- Pilot Program for Extended Time Period To Reply to a Notice To File Missing Parts of Nonprovisional Application
- Post-Prosecution Pilot Program
- Patents for Humanity Program
- Enhanced Examination Timing Control Initiative; Notice of Public Meeting