by Dennis Crouch
I have a cute chart below – a cumulative frequency diagram showing how long patent applicants take to respond to non-final office actions.
Once an action is mailed, the applicant has three months to respond. Those three months are then extendable for up to three more months for successively larger fees. $220, 640, and 1480 for 1, 2, and 3 month extensions respectively (for large entities). In addition to the added fee for the extension, the extension also reduces any patent-term-adjustment on a day-for-day basis for each day delayed.
One thing to note here is that about 60% of the responses come within two weeks of the three month due date with a good chunk being submitted just at the deadline. That final-day submission gives me stress just thinking about it, but more generally it suggests what I mentioned in a prior post – friction in the attorney-client communication and decision making process. The reality in the patent law world is that that deadlines are almost necessary to force collective action — in the OA scenario this often involves gathering inventor input, client approval of responses and fees, and coordinating across various organizations. But, this timing also suggests to me room for process improvement in how firms handle office action responses.