The process in which an inventor files an application for a patent with the USPTO, and submits follow-up materials and appeals is known as “patent prosecution.” Patent prosecution is a very slow process: Despite consistent improvement in the USPTO’s processing time over the past five years, in 2016 the average interval between the initial filing of a patent and the USPTO’s first response was just over 16 months. And the complete patent prosecution process took an average of over 25 months to complete.
This can be incredibly frustrating for many inventors, and I’m often asked how patent prosecution can be completed more efficiently.
Even a century ago, inventors were asking the same question, as the patent office apparently felt no obligation to move with any haste whatsoever. Eventually, frustrated inventors discovered that when they went to the trouble of making their way to the patent office in Washington, D.C. and demonstrating their inventions in person for patent examiners, patent prosecution was greatly expedited.
This in-person meeting with patent examiners eventually became formalized as a process known as an “examiner interview,” in which inventors and their legal representatives can sit down with patent examiners and discuss the details of the patent application, and better explain how the invention is an improvement on existing designs.
Today, experienced patent attorneys have enough data on hand to know which specific examiners best respond to the examiner interview process, as well as what questions and arguments are most effective.
One of the things that I often remind my clients of is that patent examiners are human. Establishing a positive and courteous relationship with an examiner during a patent interview almost always makes it easier to come to an agreement with the examiner about what aspects of an invention are patentable, and expedites the issuance of patents.