Procédure d’Examen accéléré aux États-Unis

Merci à William F. (“Bill”) Heinze et à son I/P Updates pour avoir mis en lumière les récents changements à la procédure pour obtenir l’Examen accéléré d’une demande de brevet aux États-Unis.

Les nouvelles conditions pour obtenir l’examen accéléré d’une demande de brevet sont les suivantes (en anglais):

1. The application must be a non-reissue utility or design application filed under 35 U.S.C. 111(a).
2. The application, petition, and required fees must be filed electronically using the USPTO’s electronic filing system (EFS), or EFS-Web. See future form PTO/SB/28.
3. At the time of filing, the application must be complete under 37 CFR 1.51 and in condition for examination. .
4. The application must contain three or fewer independent claims and twenty or fewer total claims and no multiple dependent claims.
5. By filing a petition to make special under the accelerated examination program the applicant is agreeing not to separately argue the patentability of any dependent claim during any appeal in the application.
6. At the time of filing, applicant must provide a statement that a prescribed preexamination search was conducted, .An amendment to the claims (including any new claim) that is not encompassed by the preexamination search or an updated accelerated examination support document (see item 9) will be treated as not fully responsive and will not be entered. A search report from a foreign patent office will not satisfy this preexamination search requirement unless the search report satisfies the requirements set forth in this notice for a preexamination search.
7. At the time of filing, applicant must also provide an “accelerated examination support document with an information disclosure statement (IDS) with an identification of all the limitations in the claims that are disclosed by the reference specifying where the limitation is disclosed in the cited reference. The accelerated examination support document must also include a showing of where each limitation of the claims finds support under the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112 in the written description of the specification. For each means- (or step-) plus-function claim element that invokes consideration under 35 U.S.C. 112, ] 6, it must also identify the structure, material, or acts in the specification that correspond to each means- (or step-) plus-function claim element that invokes consideration under 35 U.S.C. 112, ] 6. If the application claims the benefit of one or more applications under title 35, United States Code, the showing must also include where each limitation of the claims finds support under the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112 in each such application in which such support exists.

A defaut de répondre à l’une ou l’autre des conditions précédentes, le demandeur aurait une seule opportunité de corriger la requête ainsi qu’une période d’un mois.

Une fois la requête acceptée, une Lettre officielle devrait lui être envoyée (ou un avis d’acceptation) dans un délai de 2 semaines.