The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has introduced the Full First Action Interview Pilot Program for all utility applications. Under the program, an applicant is entitled to a first action interview, upon request, prior to the first Office Action on the merits. We here at LGP are taking advantage of this by entering eligible patent applications into the program, at no additional cost to our clients.
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO David Kappos said, “We’re expanding this pilot program because we’ve seen that, by enhancing the interaction between the applicant and the examiner early in the examination process, it helps both applicants and the USPTO. We hope that by expanding the pilot to even more technology areas, we will see many more applicants take advantage of this program and realize its benefits.” For applications in the program, the examiner will conduct a prior art search and provide the applicant with a condensed, pre-interview communication, citing relevant prior art and identifying proposed rejections or objections. Within 30 days of receipt, the applicant schedules an interview and submits proposed amendments and/or arguments. At the interview, the relevant prior art, proposed rejections, and proposed amendments and arguments will be discussed. We hope that this USPTO program will help to streamline the patent process, improve results, and keep expenses down. In fact, since we started using this program, we’ve seen immediate and positive results. It seems that if the Examiner can be engaged before taking an official position in the form of an Office Action, the relationship between Applicant and Patent Office can be less confrontational and more cooperative. We expect to continue using this program in the future.