Patent - US Prosecution Timeline

            A common question that our potential clients and clients ask us is how long will it take to prosecute a U.S. patent application.  The answer to this question depends on a number of factors, such as the technology to be patented, and the art unit to which the application is assigned.  According to the USPTO's Performance and Accountability Report for Fiscal Year 2014, the average pending time to the first Office Action is 18.4 months and the average total pending time is 27.4 months.

            Additionally, our clients often ask us when an event will occur during the prosecution of their U.S. patent application.  The following chart is a rough guide hitting on some of the major events in a patent prosecution, and starts from either the filing of a provisional patent application or a non-provisional patent application.

Event	Relative Date based filing of provisional patent application	Relative Date based on filing of non-provisional patent application
File US provisional patent application .	start
File US non-provisional utility patent application, or File PCT application .	1 year after prov. app. is filed	start
US non-provisional utility patent application, and PCT application are published .	18 months after prov. app. is filed	18 months after non-prov. app. is filed
First US Office Action .	30.4 months after prov. app. is filed	18.4 months after non-prov. app. is filed
File PCT national applications in foreign countries	30 or 31 months  after prov. app. is filed – depending on the country	30 or 31 months  after non-prov. app. is filed – depending on the country

- Henry Park

updated first and second paragraphs on 4/25/15