IP Law Daily, PATENT NEWS: USPTO to discontinue Accelerated Examination program for utility patent applications, (Jun 10, 2025)

By Justin Marcus Smith, J.D.

Instead, USPTO is promoting the use of Track One, which provides the ability to advance any utility or plant application out of turn, regardless of subject matter, to reduce application pendency.

In a press release, the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) announced it will no longer accept petitions under the Accelerated Examination program for utility patent applications as of July 10, 2025. However, the program will remain in effect for design applications. USPTO cited the need to reduce overall first-action pendency, low use of the Accelerated Examination program, popularity of Track One, and the inconvenience of maintaining a seemingly redundant program. For all of those reasons, the USPTO said the Accelerated Examination did not provide enough public or patent system benefit to justify the cost of continuing it for utility applications. USPTO said the move will free up resources to devote to older pending utility applications, “thereby supporting our broader efforts to reduce pendency.” Among other things, USPTO noted a “steady decline” in requests for Accelerated Examination, hence the statutory Track One program will be able to absorb any remaining demand for Accelerated Examination of utility applications (Final Rule, Discontinuation of the Accelerated Examination Program for Utility Applications, Fed. Reg. 24324, Jun. 10, 2025).

Program history. According to the USPTO’s Accelerated Examination webpage, the program first became available as of August 25, 2006. The USPTO regulations at 37 CFR 1.102 provided that patent applications may be advanced out of turn for examination based on a “petition to make an application special.”

The program was intended to give an opportunity to advance small entities’ application out of turn for special subject matter including manufacture, infringement, or technical subjects like environmental quality, energy, recombinant DNA, superconducting materials, HIV/AIDS and cancer, countering terrorism, and biotechnology.

Track One. The Final Rule notes that Statutory Track One prioritized application under 37 CFR 1.102(e) remains available for expedited prosecution of utility patents. USPTO implemented Track One in 2011 pursuant to the America Invents Act (AIA). Unlike Accelerated Examination, Track One consideration does not depend on subject matter. Under the Track One Program, applicants can still receive expedited examination of their applications without having to prepare and file an examination support document. They pay a fee instead, subject to discounts for qualified small and micro entity applicants, and henceforth, a potential fee waiver based on inventor age or health; however, the Final Rule will eliminate the Track One fee waiver for inventions aimed at improving the environment, conserving energy, or countering terrorism.

USPTO explained that Track One availability as of 2011 largely eliminated the need for Accelerated Examination. It said it received fewer than 100 Accelerated Examination requests in each of the last 11 completed fiscal years back to 2014. Meanwhile, it said it has raised the annual limit on the number of prioritized examination requests it may accept from 10,000 to 12,000 in 2019, then to 15,000 in 2021, and it expects to raise the limit to 20,000 in 2025.

Pendency reduction. The Final Rule characterizes Track One as a “more straightforward” program that does not put resources in tension with broader efforts to reduce overall application pendency. First-action pendency increased from about 15 months in fiscal year 2019 to nearly 20 months in fiscal year 2024. USPTO said that stymied its ability to reduce the incidence of patent term adjustments required when first-action pendency reaches 14 months.

USPTO also noted that technology centers were deciding Accelerated Examination program petitions. That took time away from examining older applications, an effort that was hard to justify given that around one-third of finally decided Accelerated Examination petitions were ultimately denied anyway.

Fee waiver. Last, the Final rule amends 37 C.F.R. § 1.102(c) to waive the Track One fee requirement where an inventor has filed a petition to make special on the basis of the inventor’s age or health.

News: Patent USPTO