An important procedural change was announced by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) regarding the timing of patent issuance.
Effective May 13, 2025, the USPTO will accelerate patent issuance. Patents are expected to issue approximately one week after the Issue Notification is mailed, reducing the post-notification pendency period by about two weeks compared to current practice.
Why this matters: This significantly shortens the deadline for filing continuation, divisional, or continuation-in-part applications, which must be filed before the parent patent issues.
While the time between paying the issue fee and receiving the Issue Notification does not change (it remains a few weeks), the overall timeline from payment to issuance will be shorter. Patents will still issue only on Tuesdays.
Recommendation: To safeguard your ability to file related applications, we advise filing any continuation-type applications concurrently with, or prior to, paying the issue fee.
