Notice of Roundtables and Extension of the Period of Comments on Examination Time Goals

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office or USPTO) previously announced information for roundtables in Alexandria, Virginia, and Dallas, Texas, to solicit public feedback as part of aneffort to reevaluate its examination time goals. Examination time goals vary by technology and represent the average amount of time that a patent examiner is expected to spend examining a patent application in a particular technology. The Office now is providing information on the additional three roundtables that the Office will be conducting in Detroit, Michigan; Denver, Colorado; and San Jose, California. In addition, the Office is extending the written comment period to ensure that all stakeholders have sufficient opportunity to submit comments on the reevaluation of the Office's examination time goals.

DATES: Written Comments Deadline: To be ensured of consideration, written comments must be received on or before January 30, 2017.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent by electronic mail addressed to ExternalExaminationTimeStudy@USPTO.gov. Comments also may be submitted by postal mail addressed to: Mail Stop Comments--Patents, Commissioner for Patents, P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-1450, marked to the attention of Raul Tamayo, Senior Legal Advisor, Office of Patent Legal Administration, Office of the Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy.

    Although comments may be submitted by postal mail, the Office prefers to receive comments by electronic mail in order to facilitate posting on the USPTO's Internet Web site (http://www.uspto.gov). Electronic comments may be submitted in plain text, ADOBE portable document format, or MICROSOFT WORD[supreg] format.. Comments not submitted electronically should be submitted on paper in a format that facilitates digital scanning into ADOBE portable document format.

For more information: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-11-30/html/2016-28689.htm