The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) just
announced that the After Final Consideration Pilot 2.0 (AFCP 2.0)
has been extended to December 14, 2013. The AFCP 2.0 was
previously scheduled to expire on September 30, 2013.
This is good news because, in some circumstances, the AFCP 2.0
program may benefit automotive companies and other next generation
manufacturing patent applicants by reducing the time and expense of
obtaining an issued patent.
For utility applications, when a patent applicant receives a
Final Office Action, the applicant will often amend the claims to
better differentiate from the prior art. Typically, however,
the patent examiner will indicate in an Advisory Action that
further searching and consideration will be required to evaluate
the amended claims. Simply put, for most companies this
equates to a $1,200 Request for Continued Examination (RCE) fee
(for the first RCE, plus any relevant extension fees) and the
patent application
