Reuters reports that companies and inventors who pay extra would be able to get a quicker review of their patent applications under a proposal by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
How much extra, the PTO isn’t saying.
The proposal — which is being put out for public comment — is part of the patent office’s effort to cut into a huge backlog of applications. It now takes an average of nearly three years to approve or reject a patent application.
“The fee will certainly be non-trivial,” PTO Director David Kappos said in a conference call with reporters.
Other efforts to reduce the backlog have included a fast track for patents for green technologies, such as discoveries related to renewable energy, increasing energy efficiency or reducing greenhouse gases.
The patent office has also expanded a program that allowed an applicant to win expedited review of a patent in exchange for abandoning a second patent application. That program was opened to all applicants last month.
Photo by USPTO.