How Long Does Patent And Trademark Prosecution Take? (2015 Edition)

At the end of each fiscal year, the USPTO releases a Performance and Accountability Report, which is loaded with data about patent and trademark allowance rates, average pendency, and other details. The USPTO recently released its Performance and Accountability Report for Fiscal Year 2015. This means that it's time for IP Spotlight's annual review of the question: "how long does it take to receive a patent or trademark registration?"

To answer that question, here are a few highlights from the USPTO's FY2015 report:

Patents: The USPTO's efforts to reduce patent application pendency continued to pay off in FY 2015. The average time between filing and first office action was 17.3 months, down from 18.4 months in FY 2014 and a sharp improvement from the 28-month average time to first action that was the norm five years ago. Average total pendency also decreased, from 27.4 months in FY 2014 to 26.7 months in FY 2015, despite the large number of patent applications that