News & Analysis as of

Utility Patents Patent Applications

Womble Bond Dickinson

Be Wary of Provisional Priority Dates in Prior Art

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Patent applicants often file provisional applications at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to secure a priority date before filing a full-blown utility patent application for their inventions.  ...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Glow Buckets and Bleeding Masks: A Trick-or-Treat Bag of Patents

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

Growing up, my mom had a rule: you have to make your own Halloween costume from whatever we had at home. This worked fine until the year I wanted to be He-Man....more

Fish & Richardson

USPTO Launches Streamlined Claim Set Pilot Program

Fish & Richardson on

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced the launch of the Streamlined Claim Set Pilot Program in an effort to evaluate how limiting the number of claims under examination impacts pendency and...more

Dickinson Wright

Fewer Claims in the Fast Lane: USPTO’s Streamlined Claim Set Pilot Program

Dickinson Wright on

In a Federal Register Notice published October 27, 2025 (“Notice”), the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced a new pilot program called the “Streamlined Claim Set Pilot Program” (hereinafter “Pilot Program”)....more

Haynes Boone

USPTO Introduces Streamlined Claim Set Pilot Program

Haynes Boone on

On Oct. 27, 2025, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced it is offering a Streamlined Claim Set Pilot Program (Pilot Program), in an effort to further accelerate examination of currently pending...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

USPTO Announces Streamlined Claim Set Pilot Program

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently announced a “Streamlined Claim Set Pilot Program.” The program offers expedited examination for utility patent applications for applications with one independent...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

Patent Term Adjustment

In 1999, Congress created a system of patent term adjustment (PTA) that adds additional time to patent terms to remedy certain delays caused by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in issuing a patent. Why Review...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

World Space Week 2025: The Inventions Improving “Living in Space”

World Space Week, held each year from October 4–10, is the largest global celebration of space science and technology. Established by the United Nations in 1999, it highlights how space exploration contributes to the...more

Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C.

Strategic Uses and Considerations for Reissue Applications (Part 3 of 3)

Reissue applications represent a very small fraction of the total number of applications filed at the USPTO each year. Indeed, at the midpoint of 2025, over 1.2 million utility applications have been filed, with less than 300...more

McCarter & English, LLP

What to Do Now That the USPTO Accelerated Examination Program Is Ending

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) introduced the Accelerated Examination program in 2006 to help applicants receive expedited examination of important patent applications. The USPTO is ending the Accelerated...more

McCarter & English, LLP

USPTO Discontinues Accelerated Examination for Utility Patent Applications, but Track 1 Remains a Good Option

The USPTO recently announced that the Accelerated Examination program will be discontinued as of July 10, 2025. Given that the program has had limited use over the past decade, with fewer than 100 Accelerated Examination...more

Womble Bond Dickinson

USPTO to Discontinue Accelerated Examination Program for Utility Patents on July 10, 2025

Womble Bond Dickinson on

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced that, as of July 10, 2025, it will discontinue accepting petitions under the Accelerated Examination (AE) program for utility patent applications. However, petitions...more

MoFo Life Sciences

USPTO Discontinues Accelerated Examination Program in Favor of Expanding Track One Program

MoFo Life Sciences on

On June 10, 2025, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced that, after nearly 20 years, it will be discontinuing its Accelerated Examination Program for utility applications on July 10, 2025. The...more

ArentFox Schiff

Designers Beware: Prior Utility Patent Lacking Written Support Can Anticipate Later-Filed Design Patents

ArentFox Schiff on

In its recent In re Floyd opinion, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a decision by Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to reject a design applicant’s priority claim to an earlier utility filing for...more

Morgan Lewis

Priority Catch-22: Federal Circuit Chills Design Patent with Rejection of Priority Claim

Morgan Lewis on

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently issued a decision that highlights a risk in design patent prosecution—specifically, attempting to claim priority to a utility application. In re Floyd, the Federal...more

Quarles & Brady LLP

While There is an Active Utility Application, There is Design Hope

Quarles & Brady LLP on

Like many patent owners or aspiring patent owners, at some point you may have found yourself in a situation where design protection was needed, but all you had was narrow utility protection. ...more

Farella Braun + Martel LLP

Federal Circuit Notes Patent in Rejecting Trade Dress Protection

As a general rule, in order to be protectable trade dress, a feature of a product, for example, the product's color, must be nonfunctional. That is, the feature must have been an arbitrary choice added to identify the source...more

Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck, P.C.

Reviewing 2024's Crucial Patent Law Developments

As 2024 draws to a close, several crucial developments — some aimed at modernizing long-standing legal practices, others addressing emerging challenges — have reached patent law. Originally published in Law360 - December...more

Troutman Pepper Locke

USPTO Fee Changes Taking Effect January 19, 2025‎

Troutman Pepper Locke on

On November 20, 2024, the USPTO published its Final Rule regarding fee changes to take effect on January 19, 2025 in the Federal Register....more

ArentFox Schiff

USPTO Fee Updates

ArentFox Schiff on

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has finalized its fee schedule for 2025. The updated fee schedule will take effect on January 19, 2025, and will represent a 7.5% across-the-board increase in USPTO fees....more

Quarles & Brady LLP

Rocket Docket: Fast Track to Examination

Quarles & Brady LLP on

While obtaining a design patent is often quicker than obtaining a utility patent, current design patent application pendency is often still a lengthy period of time. Based on data released by the USPTO in July 2024 and shown...more

Strafford

[Webinar] Design Patents Post-LKQ v. GM: Navigating New Obviousness Test for Design Patents - July 10th, 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm EDT

Strafford on

This CLE webinar will guide patent counsel on the Federal Circuit's recent decision in LKQ Corp. v. GM Global Technology Operations L.L.C. (May 21, 2024) and its implications for design patents. The panel will discuss the new...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

Sterne Kessler’s Reissue, Reexamination, and Supplemental Examination Practice Tips - April 2024

In the mid-2000s, the U.S. Patent Office (USPTO) determined that reexaminations would be more consistent and legally correct if performed by a centralized set of experienced and specially trained Examiners. As a result, the...more

McDermott Will & Schulte

Who Solved the Problem? Joint Inventors, That’s Who

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court’s decision to correct inventorship in a post-issuance inventorship dispute, finding that the alleged joint inventors’ contributions were significant...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

2023 Design Patents Year in Review: Analysis & Trends: U.S. District Courts: Significant Design Patent Cases on District Court...

2023 was another busy year for district court decisions! There were patent- and case-dispositive design patent decisions across a range of venues and at a range of case postures, including claim construction rulings, summary...more

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