At the close of business on Monday, June 15, 2009, the USPTO will no longer be accepting new consents from applicants to include their applications in Peer-to-Patent. Consents already filed covering applications published on or before June 15 will still be honored, and those applications will continue to be processed through Peer-to-Patent and will continue to receive priority for examination. However, consents on file covering applications that will not publish until after June 15 will not be honored. According to information provided by the USPTO, that means 30-40 applications for which the applicant has previously filed consent will not, in fact, participate.
New York Law School's Center for Patent Innovations will continue to process all active applications until they have all completed the normal peer review cycle. Based on applications presently on hand or anticipated, we believe the peer review process will conclude on or about October 15, 2009.
The decision to discontinue the program was made by the USPTO on the heels of the recent recognition of Peer-to-Patent by the White House Open Government Initiative. The USPTO has requested a period of time in which to evaluate the program before making a decision on whether and how to proceed further. If you wish to let the USPTO know you value the program and would like it to continue, please send an e-mail to [email protected].
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