Nov 1, 2009
How long does it take for a U.S. patent to issue?
In order to have a patent granted on an invention, a patent application must be prepared, filed and prosecuted in the U.S.P.T.O.
When an official (as opposed to provisional) patent application is filed, the application is directed to an examiner. Depending on backlog, an examiner will typically take between 6 months and 3 years to read the patent application to ensure that the specification (detailed description of the invention) appropriately describes and enables one of skill in the art to make and use what is described in the claims. The examiner will also perform a prior art search to ensure that the claims are patentable over the prior art. If the claims are determined to be patentable and appropriately supported by the patent, the examiner will allow the claims and a patent will be issued within about 3 months from when the patent applicant pays the issue fee.
More typically, however, the examiner will reject the claims or object to the specification on one or more grounds and applicants will respond to the reject. This process can repeated until an examiner issues a "final" rejection - at which point applicants may appeal or file a continuation to pursue another examination.
It typically takes a year from when a patent application is filed to be issued - and more typically at least 2, 3 or more years.
