by Dennis Crouch
vast majority of newly issued patents are granted some amount of patent term adjustment (PTA) — often more than 18 months — added to the end of the patent to account for delays in the issuance of the patent. In the rececent case of Exelixis v. Kappos, the E.D.V.A. district court held that the PTO has been undercalculating PTA for (in my estimate) more than 10% of all recently issued patents. The PTO has not yet challenged that decision but it has also not taken action to correct its calculations.
The following survey is intended to get a feel for how the patent community is responding.