How long does it take the USPTO to examine a patent application?
USPTO Statistics (FY 2009)
The “FY 2009 USPTO Performance and Accountability Report” provides a variety of metrics that relate to the operation and performance of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for Fiscal Year 2009. The report indicates that for FY 2009, the “Patent Average First Action Pendency” was 25.8 months while the “Patent Average Total Pendency” was 34.6 months. However, as the aforementioned numbers are an “average” value across all of the technology centers of the USPTO, the following page provides the aforementioned performance measures for each of the USPTO technology centers (see Table 4 – Patent Pendency Statistics (FY 2009)). Further to the aforementioned table, one can see that across the Technology Centers at the USPTO, the range for “Average First Action Pendency” is 20.8-33 months while the range for “Total Average Pendency” is 29.7-47.7 months.
USPTO Data Visualization Center | Real-Time Data
To obtain “real-time” data, the USPTO recently (September 2010) launched an online Data Visualization website entitled the “USPTO Data Visualization Center.” This website provides the Public with traditional metrics of pendency along with a number of new pendency tracking metrics. Additionally, it is indicated therein that the website will be updated on a monthly basis. The various metrics which are provided by the USPTO Data Visualization website are as follows:
Traditional Measures:
- First Office Action Pendency (months)
- Traditional Total Pendency (months)
- Patent Application Backlog
- Fiscal Year Production
- Average Actions Per Disposal
- Utility, Plant, and Reissue (UPR) Patent Applications Allowed
- Patent Examiners on Staff
- Patent Examination Quality
New-Pendency-related Measures:
- Traditional Total Pendency Including RCEs (months)
- Inventory Position (months)
- Pendency from Application Filing to Board Decision (months)
- Pendency of Requests for Continued Examination (RCEs) (months)
- Pendency of Continuation Applications (months)
- Pendency of Divisional Applications (months)