by Dennis Crouch
The Patent Term Adjustment statute guarantees that USPTO delays will not unduly shorten patent term. 35 U.S.C. § 154(b). The first guarantee an applicant encounters is the 14-month clock: the USPTO must issue a First Office Action on the Merits (FAOM) or a Notice of Allowance (NOA) within 14 months of filing. When the agency misses that mark, the applicant earns day-for-day patent term adjustment under what we call “A delay” or “(A)(i) delay.” § 154(b)(1)(A)(i). The chart above shows how well the USPTO has been hitting that target, broken down by the fiscal year of the first substantive examiner action.
The short answer: not well.
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