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USPTO Eases Requirement for Accelerated Review of Green Technology Patents

Choate Alert

 | June 1, 2010

 | Clean-Tech and Intellectual Property Groups

 

What you need to know:

Last Friday, the USPTO announced changes to permit more applications to qualify for a pilot program that allows inventions related to green technologies to be examined more quickly.

What you need to do:

Parties with pending green technology patents should determine whether they are eligible to petition for expedited review or, if a previous petition was dismissed, whether they should file a renewed petition in light of the USPTO’s changes.

 

In December 2009, the USPTO announced a pilot program to accelerate the examination of certain green technology patent applications. The pilot program is open to the first 3,000 applications related to green technologies in which a proper petition is filed. 

As a result of the USPTO’s changes last Friday, eligible applications must still pertain to subject matter such as energy conservation, development of renewable energy resources, greenhouse gas emission reduction, etc., but they will no longer need to fall under certain USPTO-assigned technology classifications.

If you have a patent application relating to a green technology that was pending on December 8, 2009, and has not yet been subject to an Office Action, you should contact your patent attorney promptly to start the process of petitioning for expedited review under this pilot program. In addition, if a previously filed petition was dismissed solely on the basis of the classification requirement, you should consider the possibility of filing a renewed petition.  Renewed petitions that are filed by June 21 will be treated as if filed on the date the original
petition was filed.

Summary

Given the limited size and term of this pilot program, inventors and companies with pending patent applications related to green technologies should promptly consult with their lawyer at Choate or one of the following partners to determine the appropriateness of petitioning (or renewing a dismissed petition) for the USPTO’s green technology pilot program.

 

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