Examination Time And Production System: Your Opinion Is Requested

At the end of October of 2016, the USPTO solicited public feedback as the Office embarked on reevaluating its examination time goals. The Federal Register announcement can be found here. At the Office, each technology area is assigned an examination time goal; examination time goals vary by technology and are considered the average amount of time that should be spent by an examiner when examining a patent application in a particular technology area. With technology, examination and art changes over the years, the Office now seeks to reevaluate those examination time goals.

As part of that reevaluation process, the Office provided a list of questions to solicit stakeholder comments; those questions can be found here. Information sought by the Office, however, is not limited to the proffered questions; the Office welcomes other comments. The Office has also held interactive roundtables at their various sites (Alexandria, VA; Dallas, TX; and Denver, CO) to again collect