The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is implementing a pilot program to accelerate the examination of certain “green” technology patent applications. Normally, patent applications are taken up for examination in the order that they are filed and take over three years to receive a final decision. Under the Green Tech Pilot Program, for the first 3,000 patent applications related to green technologies in which a proper petition is filed, the Office will examine the application on an accelerated basis, which should reduce the time it takes to patent the invention by an average of a year. The deadline for filing petitions under this program is December 8, 2010.

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