The United States Patent and Trademark Office amended its rules on Patent Term Adjustment (PTA), it requires applicants to submit a standard form making the process more streamlined and accurate.
The current rules state that the submission of the form is optional and not required, it was found that some statements were needed to be reviewed by the agency while calculating the patents term.
The form is said to streamline the patent adjustment process avoiding red-tape between the USPTO and the applicant. Delays by the USPTO during the examination process may shorten the 20-year period of the patent.
The patent term adjustment accounts for the delays caused by this examination period, which is highly advantageous to patent holders in the pharmaceutical industry. But sometimes the PTA is reduced due to the time during which the applicant fails to engage “in reasonable efforts to conclude prosecution”.
The amendment will require the applicant to file an Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) in the Office Form, any applicants who do not use the form will not receive benefits to prevent reduction of period of patent term adjustment. The current problem faced by the USPTO is that applicants send letters which is often not recognized by the office’s software.
Therefore, the IDS is now required to be mentioned on the form in order to allow the system to accurately capture the statements. Thus, making the form a requirement will prevent requests for reconsideration.
The amendments are set to make the process more efficient for the applicant and the patent office.