Leveraging USPTO Delays To Maximize Patent Term

Before the USPTO was subject to a hiring freeze, it assumed it would onboard 400 new examiners between fiscal year 2025 and fiscal year 2026, and still predicted an increase in the backlog of unexamined patent applications. With a hiring freeze in place, the current backlog at nearly 838,000 unexamined patent applications, and the wait for initial examination already over 20 months, applicants can expect the time required to obtain a patent to increase.

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