Will Fast-Tracking of New Patents Make Any Real Difference?
Until recently, if you wanted a new patent, you paid a fee close to a thousand dollars, and waited till your turn came. Now, with a significant backlog of pending new patent applications, and as a step to encourage innovation in the US, the Commerce Department has decided to allow speeding up of the patent process for some who pay a fee of $4,000.
Filing a new patent takes an average of 35 months, while under the new system it will be processed in less than a year after the payment of $4,000. The idea is to encourage innovators by processing new patents quickly.
However, as only 10,000 new fast-track patents are going to be granted for the year, while up to half a million new patents are demanded every year, the new process might not produce any substantial results.
