On March 19, 2013, expediting examination will become less
expensive as the USPTO lowers fees from $4,800 to $4,000 for the
Track 1 prioritized examination program. For small entities, the
Track 1 prioritized examination fee drops from $2,400 to $2,000.
And for universities, the USPTO will start offering its new
micro-entity rate, with a Track 1 fee of only $1,000 per
application.
Under certain circumstances, Track 1 examination can be less
expensive overall than normal prosecution, even accounting for the
Track 1 examination fee. Our recent review of more than 350
expedited applications shows that, on average, allowed Track 1
cases receive only about 1.3 office actions, compared to an average
of 2.6 office actions for a regular patent application. For many
applicants, especially those entitled to small- and micro-entity
status, this lower number of office actions may more than offset
the cost of preparing and filing a request for Track 1 prioritized
examination. The
