Expedited Patent Examination

Why Expedite Patent Examination?

Having an unissued patent creates uncertainty. Expediting patent examination helps remove this uncertainty. An issued patent is a potent tool discourages competitors from copying your product innovations. Accelerated patent examination helps you get to issuance quickly.

If you compete in a fast moving space where technology is constantly changing or improving, expedited patent examination may be the best choice toward for preserving your window of opportunity. For startups, expedited examination helps you quickly gain real intellectual property assets and bring confidence to potential investors.

Expedited patent examination is most potent in patent examination groups, or art units, where examination times are predicted to be slow. At the time of this writing in mid-2026, according to U.S. Patent Office patent dashboard, it takes on average 22 months  for a patent examiner to examine at a patent application after it is filed. Your actual time may vary. Some examinations groups are significantly faster, while others are significantly slower. You may want to consider one of the various prioritized or expedited patent examination options available to you if you application is likely to fall into an examination group that does not meet your business timeline.

My Experience with Expedited and Accelerated Patent Examination

I have successfully had over 70 applications examined under various accelerated patent examination programs.  These include nearly 30 patent applications under Track One Prioritized Examination program, four applications under the 12-month Accelerated Patent Examination program,  seven applications under the discontinued design patent expedited examination program (“rocket docket”), over thirty petition to make special for age, and six applications under the discontinued Green Technology Pilot Program.

Track One Prioritized Examination

Track One Prioritized Examination gives you accelerated patent examination in exchange for a fee and a few restrictions. At the time of this writing in mid-2026, the fee for a small entity (i.e. a company with under 500 employees) is $1886 plus the regular fee of $730 patent application filing fee. According to U.S. Patent Office prioritized examination statistics, the average time for first examination from the time the track one petition is granted is about 2 months. In my experience, it usually takes about two to three months, from the time of filing, for a patent application to be examined under this program.

This program does have a few restrictions that should not affect most patent applications. The most important one is that your application can have a maximum of 4 independent patent claims, and 30 claims total.

A Track One prioritized examination petition must be submitted at the time the application is filed. Alternatively, it can also be filed with a request for continuing examination(RCE).

Accelerating Patent Examination Based on the Inventor’s Age

Are any of the inventors 65 or older? If the answer is yes, then your patent application is entitled to accelerated patent examination under a program called “petition to make special for age.”

Under this program, one of the inventors simply provides written documentation to their patent attorney or agent that they are 65 or older. This written documentation can be any official photo ID such as a driver’s license or passport. After filing the application, the patent attorney submits a petition that states that the patent agent or patent attorney has evidence in their possession showing that the inventor is 65 or older. The petition is automatically granted. The U.S. Patent Office does not charge any fee for accelerated patent examination under this program.

Depending on the examination art unit, the patent application can be examined anywhere from two months to one year after filing. The clear advantage of this accelerated patent examination program is that it is free and automatically granted. The disadvantage is that it can be slower than prioritized examination or the 12-month accelerated examination program.

Patent Prosecution Highway

The Patent Prosecution Highway is an accelerated patent examination program that significantly reduces time to first examination and increases the chances of allowance without rejection. If your patent application was originally filled as a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) or foreign patent application in a participating country and has allowed claims, you U.S. patent application may qualify for the Patent Prosecution Highway.

Similarly, if your U.S. patent application has allowed claims, than your foreign patent application filed in a country participating in the Patent Prosecution Highway can be granted accelerated patent examination under the program.

Where Patent Prosecution Highway really works well is filing a U.S. application under Track One and then filing foreign patent applications, such with the European Patent Office under the Patent Prosecution Highway. Assuming there is not a PCT application, foreign applications must be filed within one year of the original U.S. patent application. Since in my experience, accelerated patent examination under the Track One program generally leads to allowance in less than six months, the risk of foreign filing is significantly reduced.

The U.S. Patent Office has additional resources and information on the Patent Prosecution Highway.