On November 10, 2010, the United States Patent and Trademark Office announced an extension to the Green Technology Pilot Program by over a year! The program now runs until December 31, 2011 and the first 3,000 grantable petitions will be accepted. Applicants who file green technology related patent applications on or before December 31, 2011 may now be eligible to enter the program as long as the other requirements are met (click here for further information).
As previously reported in our December 10, 2009 article, the program advances green technology related patent applications out of turn for examination and earlier review. Prior to the November 10, 2010 update, only those Applicants who filed green technology related applications before December 8, 2009 were eligible. Now the program allows more Applicants to take advantage of this program. Since December 2009, 790 petitions have been granted to the program and 94 patents have been issued. For more information about the program or to see if your patent application is eligible, please contact the Venable team for more information.