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ARTICLE · 19 OCTOBER 2020

Patent Office Pilot Program To Encourage COVID-19 Related Inventions (Expanded)

Reinhart, Boerner, Van Deuren SC
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On September 17, 2020, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (Patent Office) launched a new pilot program in an effort to incentivize inventors to find solutions to COVID-19.

United StatesIntellectual Property
Timothy P. Naill
Timothy P. Naill
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On September 17, 2020, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (Patent Office) launched a new pilot program in an effort to incentivize inventors to find solutions to COVID-19. Under the new pilot program, filing fees for provisional patent applications may be deferred and, in some cases, need not be paid at all if certain conditions relating to COVID-19 are met. The pilot program is reserved for provisional patent applications filed under 35 U.S.C. 111(b). Nonprovisional patent applications or international applications designating the United States are not eligible for participation.

Currently, inventors enjoy the economic advantage provided by the patenting right of exclusion. In exchange for the right of exclusion, the patent application is laid open to the public so that its technical subject matter becomes part of the total available information in the field of the invention. This information sharing permits others to improve upon the invention and even to

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