USPTO Performance and Accountability Report - U.S. Patent and ...

Strategic Goal 1: Optimize Patent Quality and Timeliness
The USPTO is pleased to report that our AIA implementation
efforts are proceeding on a timely
basis. America’s innovators are already seeing
the benefits of this legislation. Seven provisions of the
AIA have been implemented – all within the time
frames prescribed by the Act – and proposed rules
have been published for nine more provisions.
The USPTO remains on track to timely implement all
provisions of the AIA.
The USPTO is also proud of our ongoing, concurrent
efforts to improve the patent examination process and
more quickly move important innovations to the
marketplace. For example, our backlog of patent
applications has been reduced to 608,283, the lowest
level in several years despite significant increases in
filings last year and this year. Our total pendency was
reduced to 32.4 months and our first action pendency
was reduced to 21.9 months, much lower than the
previous year.
FIGURE 7 Clearing the Oldest Patent Applications – FY 2012
COPA “Tail” Cases in the Backlog
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
In order to achieve its goal to reduce pendency, the
USPTO launched a major program called Clearing
Our Oldest Patent Applications 2.0 (COPA 2.0).
COPA 2.0 is a continuation of the original COPA effort
to eliminate the “tail” of backlog applications.
For COPA 2.0, the “tail” is applications that were
13 months and older as of October 1, 2011, and had
not received a first office action. The goal for FY 2012
was to complete a first office action on 260,000
applications. As of the end of the year, we addressed
more than 271,635 COPA 2.0 applications and
achieved over 100 percent of the goal. Clearing the
oldest patent applications is important to the
USPTO’s long-term success in reducing pendency
and the excess inventory of unexamined patent
applications.
The improvements and increased efficiencies are
shown in our COPA performance metrics in Figure 7,
below.
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