Is the USPTO Flagging Selected Patent Applications for Extra Scrutiny-Again?

"The USPTO has no discretion to flag and indefinitely shelve pending patent applications because someone views them as being of 'special interest.' Two prominent inventors are accusing the United States Patent and Trademark Office of singling out and stalling their pending patent applications, which might otherwise be allowable, for extra scrutiny under ill-defined standards."

"Before 1995, patents were entitled to a term of 17 years from issuance, no matter how long they might have been pending. The 1995 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade amendments changed this. Going forward, for applications having an effective filing date after June 8, 1995, the term would be 20 years from the effective filing date."

"Unlike today, where most applications are published 18 months from filing, pending patent applications were not made public in pre-GATT days. These pre-GATT conditions had led to a phenomenon called 'submarine' patents. These were patents that issued after long, sometimes intentionally long pendency periods."

Two inventors are suing the USPTO in federal court, alleging the agency illegally singles out and stalls their patent applications for extra scrutiny under poorly defined standards. The USPTO claims to have discontinued such a program in 2015, but the inventors argue it was resurrected from a 1994 initiative. Historical context reveals that flagging applications for special treatment dates back to at least 1981. The practice emerged partly due to pre-1995 patent law conditions that allowed extended pendency periods and non-public applications, creating "submarine" patents that issued after long delays. The 1995 GATT amendments changed patent term calculations from 17 years post-issuance to 20 years from filing date, but the USPTO's selective application flagging practices persisted.

Read at IPWatchdog.com | Patents & Intellectual Property Law