USPTO Postpones Effective Date of "Track One" Fast-Track Patent Processing

April 27, 2011
Washington – The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has postponed the start date of the Track One prioritized patent examination program, which was scheduled to go into effect on May 4, 2011, until further notice due to reduced spending authority in the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011.
“Without the resources to hire a sufficient number of examiners to implement Track One, we must postpone the effective date of the program until we are in a position to implement it successfully while ensuring there will be no adverse impact on non-prioritized examination applications,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO David Kappos.
Track One, [which is] part of the USPTO’s Three-Track Program, [which would] provide applicants with greater control over when their applications are examined and promote greater efficiency in the patent examination process. Track One would allow inventors and businesses, for a fee, to have their patents processed within 12 months. Additional details on the postponement will be available in a Federal Register notice to be published on April 29, 2011.