The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) launched a new Accelerated Examination Program on August 25, 2006.

The primary aim behind this move was to offer qualified applicants a last disposition within a period of 12 months from the date of filing the application. This final disposition comprises the following:

• Notice of allowance
• Final office action
• Notice of appeal
• Request for continual examination (RCE), or abandonment

The Accelerated Examination Program involves numerous prescribed requirements. One of the major criteria for admissibility of an application under this program is Pre-Examination Search Document. While submitting an application, an applicant must include a separate statement detailing the findings of a pre-examination search. It is mandatory for an applicant who decides to file a petition under the Accelerated Examination Program to conduct a comprehensive Prior Art Search among US Patents, published patent applications, foreign patent documents, and any non-patent literature. It is also important for an applicant to submit an Accelerated Examination Support Document (AESD). This form necessitates the addition of an Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) quoting each allusion that is most closely connected to the subject of each claim in the submitted application. An applicant is required to classify wherein each reference an examiner may locate each of the applicant's claim limitations. The next step is for the applicant to provide a detailed description of how each claim is patentable over the parallel reference.

Legal Advantage offers Accelerated Examination Searches, which fulfill the following requirements laid down by the USPTO:

• Classifying the field of search on the basis of US class and subclass, in addition to International class.
• Using the search logic, chemical structure, or sequence as queries for database searches. Also include the name of the file searches, the database service used, and the date of the search.
• Identifying where each claim limitation can be found in the patent application of the cited prior art references.
• Explaining how each claim is patentable over the reference using relevancy interpretation.
• Providing support for each claim limitation in the requirement and any parent application.
• Identifying cited references that may be disqualified as prior art under 35 U.S.C. 103(c)