Time In Purgatory: Examining the Grant Lag for U.S. Patent Applications

Abstract As patent applications increase, and the range of patentable technologies increases, the length of time it takes for an invention to go through the examination process at the U.S. Patent Office has increased. Concerns over the distributional effects of these changes have been expressed during policy debates. We use data on U.S. patent applications and grants to ask who is affected by longer grant lags. We augment this analysis with interviews of patent examiners, leading to a better understanding of the examination process. Our analysis finds that differences across technology are most important. These differences do not erode over time, suggesting that learning effects alone will not reduce grant lags. Inventor characteristics have statistically significant effects, but the magnitudes are small.

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Is the Patent Office a Rubber Stamp?

10.31235/osf.io/67ft5 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Mark Lemley

Keyword(s):

Patent Office ◽

Rubber Stamp ◽

Patent Applications ◽

Surprising Fact ◽

The U.S

A growing chorus of voices is sounding a common refrain - the U.S. Patentand Trademark Office (PTO) is issuing far too many bad patents. Thesecriticisms are complicated by the rather surprising fact that we don'tactually know what percentage of patent applications actually issue aspatents. In this paper, we use a novel dataset of all published patentapplications filed in January 2001 to estimate the grant rate. These dataalso allow us to examine the uses of continuation applications, and toassess dynamics of applicant-examiner interaction over the patentprosecution process. We find that the PTO rejects a surprisingly highpercentage of patents. While more than two-thirds of all applicationsresult in at least one patent, a significant number of applications arerejected and then finally abandoned by the applicant. We also find that thelikelihood of obtaining a patent varies significantly by industry, but insurprising ways. Finally, despite a variety of reforms that might bethought to reduce the use and abuse of continuation applications, we find ahigh use of continuation applications of various types.

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Examination of form not substance: Rethinking the patent examination process in Nigeria

University of Cape Coast Law Journal ◽

10.47963/ucclj.v1i1.229 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 149-168

Author(s):

Kasim Musa Waziri ◽

Gwom Solomon Gwom

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Human Resources ◽

Patent System ◽

Patent Office ◽

Knowledge Assets ◽

Patent Applications ◽

The Government ◽

Patent Examination ◽

Examination Process

In an age where knowledge assets play significant roles in the economic development of nations, the patent system has become one of the essential drivers of technological and economic advancement. Thus, the essence of examining inventions is to ensure good quality of patents granted by a patent office and to ensure that such patent applications satisfy the novelty, inventive step, and industrial application criteria. It is standard practice in most countries that patent applications by patentees go through examination processes before they are granted patents. Local patent rules usually guide such examination processes. The Nigerian patent system is not an exception to such practice. However, it suffices to submit only necessary documents for inspection by officials of the Nigerian Patent Registry before a patent is granted. This process of registering patents in Nigeria, which is the depository process of examination, is not thorough compared to the substantive method of examination. The substantive procedure is lacking in the Nigerian patent system. The need for a substantive process of examination in Nigeria is what this article discusses. The article recommends a mix of both the depository and the substantive process of examination in Nigeria, as practised in some countries to issue quality patents that would aid technological and economic growth in the country. The article also concludes that much more needs to be done by the government and policymakers in Nigeria in terms of funds, human resources, and other things to ensure the institution and sustenance of a substantive method of examination of patent applications.

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Uncle Sam wants you to be the first-inventor-to-file for nanotechnology inventions

Nanotechnology Reviews ◽

10.1515/ntrev-2012-0044 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 1 (4) ◽

pp. 383-386

Author(s):

Ross Spencer Garsson ◽

Chinh H. Pham

Keyword(s):

File System ◽

Patent System ◽

Patent Office ◽

Patent Laws ◽

Patent Applications ◽

Filing Patent ◽

The U.S

AbstractBy the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA), the U.S. patent system is experiencing the most significant reform since the U.S. Patent Act was enacted some 60 years ago. This article focuses on one aspect of the AIA that has perhaps triggered the biggest debate, namely the conversion under the U.S. Patent laws from a “first-to-invent” system to a “first-inventor-to-file” system. The change to the first-inventor-to file system has broad implications to all entities filing patents in the U.S. Under the new first-inventor-to-file system, the emphasis is now on filing patent applications in the U.S. Patent Office even more quickly than before. Thus, a strategy to file early and often (including using provisional applications) will generally better protect against a later inventor winning the race to the U.S. Patent Office.

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Novel Inventions

10.1093/oso/9780197553480.003.0005 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 120-150

Author(s):

Reed Gochberg

Keyword(s):

National Museum ◽

Patent Office ◽

Legal Standards ◽

The Social ◽

History Of ◽

New Ideas ◽

Patent Applications ◽

The Relationship ◽

The U.S ◽

Public Museum

Chapter 4 examines the distinctive history of the U.S. Patent Office gallery, which combined national repository, bureaucratic office, and public museum. Its collections included the models submitted by inventors with their patent applications, which offered tangible examples of new legal standards for novelty and utility. Tourists marveled at the model machines on display, connecting them to ideals of national progress and ingenuity, and the gallery’s collections sparked wider discussions of the relationship between nation, invention, and spectacle. Ralph Waldo Emerson drew on an imagined collection of machines to contemplate the relationship between technological novelty and literary originality, while Walt Whitman’s description of the gallery as a temporary Civil War hospital examined the social and human implications of such a strange spectacle. These accounts highlight broader debates about the place of new ideas in a national museum and how such contributions would be defined.

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New Patents & Published Patent Applications From the U.S. and Over 30 Other Countries

Acupuncture & Electro-Therapeutics Research ◽

10.3727/036012904815901470 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 29 (3) ◽

pp. 319-324

Keyword(s):

Patent Applications ◽

The U.S

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Continuing Patent Applications and Performance of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as of Fiscal Year 2016

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.3014762 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Christopher Anthony Cotropia ◽

Cecil D. Quillen, Jr.

Keyword(s):

Fiscal Year ◽

Patent Applications ◽

And Performance ◽

The U.S

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Transocean and the History of Tax Inversions

Issues in Accounting Education ◽

10.2308/iace-52321 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 34 (1) ◽

pp. 1-12

Author(s):

Susan M. Albring ◽

Randal J. Elder ◽

Mitchell A. Franklin

Keyword(s):

Multinational Corporations ◽

Economic Impacts ◽

Income Taxes ◽

Tax Rates ◽

Corporate Tax ◽

Corporate Income Taxes ◽

History Of ◽

Jobs Act ◽

The U.S ◽

Over Time

ABSTRACT The first tax inversion in 1983 was followed by small waves of subsequent inversion activity, including two inversions completed by Transocean. Significant media and political attention focused on transactions made by U.S. multinational corporations that were primarily designed to reduce U.S. corporate income taxes. As a result, the U.S. government took several actions to limit inversion activity. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) significantly lowered U.S. corporate tax rates and one expected impact of TCJA is a reduction of inversion activity. Students use the Transocean inversions to understand the reasons why companies complete a tax inversion and how the U.S. tax code affects inversion activity. Students also learn about the structure of inversion transactions and how they have changed over time as the U.S. government attempted to limit them. Students also assess the tax and economic impacts of inversion transactions to evaluate tax policy.

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