USPTO to Discontinue Accelerated Examination for Utility Patent Applications
The USPTO announced today (June 9, 2025) that the Accelerated Examination program will be discontinued effective July 10, 2025. The formal notice of the rule change will be published tomorrow, June 10, 2025, in the Federal Register.
The Accelerated Examination program provides for an application to be made special (given priority in examination) upon payment of a small fee (currently $150 for a large entity), and submission of an involved accelerated examination support document in support of the request. Among the requirements for the support document are providing the results of a prior art search, and a detailed explanation of how each of the claims is patentable over the prior art found in the search. See MPEP 708,02(a)(I). The requirements for the support document, and in particular the need to make statements on the record that might later be questioned later litigation, have caused many practitioners to steer clear of the Accelerated Examination program. Indeed, the Federal Register notice states that over the last decade, “fewer than 100 applicants have taken advantage of the Accelerated Examination program” in any given year.
The announcement does not affect other ways to expediate examination of utility patents, such as petitions to make special for inventor’s age or poor health, the Track One program for prioritized examination, and the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) program. The Track One program, in which a large fee (currently $4515) is paid to get an application taken out of turn by the examiner, has already largely supplanted the Accelerated Examination program. (Considering the requirements for producing the support document for an Accelerated Examination request, paying the large Track One fee can actually be the less costly option for applicants.) The current annual limit for Track One applications is 15,000, and the notice indicates that this limit may be increased to 20,000 in 2025.
The Accelerated Examination program, with its onerous requirements for a support document, will continue to be available for design patent applications. With the suspension in April of the program for expedited examination of design patents, Accelerated Examination remains the only widely-available way to speed up examination of design patent applications.
The attorneys at Renner Otto will continue to monitor this and other developments at the USPTO. We strive to be authorities in all matters concerning the ever-evolving landscape of Intellectual Property; however, the information provided on our website is not intended to be legal advice, nor does it create an attorney-client relationship.
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