One Immediate "Patent Reform": A Patent Office Fee Increase

Posted Saturday, September 17, 2011.

Yesterday, President Obama signed the patent reform act, known as the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act of 2011, into law.

Among the provisions that will take effect almost immediately is a 15% increase in all patent filing fees collected by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The new fee schedule is in place as of Monday, September 26, 2011.

The good news about the fee increase is that the additional USPTO funding should result in their ability to hire more patent examiners. With more examiners, applications that are pending examination will have more personnel available to tackle the backlog. The amount of time it takes for an application to receive consideration should come down.

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