Preface
This brief note is not legal advice and is for educational purposes only.
Brief Discussion
There may come a time when you wonder “What’s going on with my patent application? It’s been like 2 years and I haven’t even heard a peep from the USPTO (US Patent and Trademark Office)”.
Your first call/email should be to your patent attorney or agent if you have one. That’s part of their job – let me them do it.
So, you don’t have a patent attorney or agent (probably not the best decision but we understand). For you, you have the privilege and opportunity to interact with the US patent office on your own. Before you go irate on the fine employees at the USPTO, you need to do a sanity check on your expectation level. For that you need to check to see how backed up the USPTO examiners are.
The USPTO has a variety of helpful web pages. One such item is the USPTO’s Patents Dashboard at:
https://www.uspto.gov/dashboard/patents/
It provides up-to-date metrics on patent processing times, backlog information, and other performance indicators. The first graphic normally displays the number of unexamined applications. The one to look for is called “First Office Action pendency” or something similar. This is the average time from filing till an examiner touches your application and sends you something like an office action. Please take it with a grain of salt. It should give you a good estimation of where you stand. For example, if the average pendency is say 22 months and it’s been 24 months for you, your application is not necessarily lost or delayed. You can clearly see from other charts that 30-40 months or more is possible for a patent to issue depending on whether you filed a Requested for Continued Examination (RCE) or an appeal.
If it’s been 6 months from the pendency figure then you can try and contact the USPTO and make sure your application has not fallen through the cracks.
There are several assistance groups within the USPTO for patents.
The USPTO Patent Electronic Business Center (EBC) provides technical support for the USPTO’s electronic filing systems and online resources, and can assist with issues related to patent application filing, fee payments, and accessing USPTO electronic systems.
Here’s some contact information: ebc@uspto.gov make sure to let them know in the subject line of the email the patent application number, and then state as succinctly as possible what your question is. Do not give them a history lesson as they can look up what’s occurred in the official record. Keep it short and sweet. If you want to call: 866-217-9197 their hours are generally M-F 6am-12am ET (except holidays).
The Application Assistance Unit (AAU) provides assistance with questions regarding patent application filing procedures, application status, and filing requirements, as well as issues related to missing parts notices, incomplete applications, and procedural matters during patent prosecution. Here’s some contact information: HelpAAU@uspto.gov again put the application number in the subject line of the email and keep the question succinct. If you want to call: 888-786-0101 their hours are generally M-F 8:30am-5:00pm ET (except holidays).
