Life In The Fast Lane

Those who have been following implementation and practice under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act have focused on the major revisions it made to U.S. patent law, such as changing the U.S. to a "first inventor to file" system, and adding inter partes review and post-grant review. Perhaps less attention has been paid to Section 25 of the AIA, but there is a very handy provision added to the patent statute by that section.

That section adds a new subsection to 35 U.S.C. § 2. That new subsection, 35 U.S.C. § 2(b)(2)(G), creates a fast track examination. Under that section, the PTO