USPTO Launches Streamlined Patent Application Program
For applicants with a patent application having, or amended to have, a streamlined claim set—one independent claim and a maximum of nine singly dependent claims—the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently launched a new mechanism for accelerating initial review of the application. This Program (the Streamlined Claim Set Pilot Program) is separate from the USPTO’s existing procedures to advance out of turn (accord special status) the examination of a utility application, which includes (1) a petition to make special, or (2) a request for prioritized examination.
On October 27, 2025, the USPTO initiated the Program to explore the impact of an efficient claim set on prosecution pendency and examination quality.1 This new Program comes on the heels of an April 2025 U.S. Government Accountability Office intellectual property Report2 identifying a need for the USPTO to strengthen its efforts in addressing persistent examination and quality challenges, including increasingly complex technology and an incentivization system that can reward expediency at the cost of thoroughness.
The Program will accept petitions to make special beginning October 27, 2025, until either October 27, 2026, or the date each of the nine Technology Centers examining utility applications is docketed with at least approximately 200 applications accepted into the pilot program, whichever occurs first.
Requirements for a grantable petition include filing, before the issuance of a first Office action, including a written restriction requirement, a petition in an original (non-reissue), noncontinuing, utility application having an actual filing date prior to October 27, 2025, filed under 35 U.S.C. 111(a), where the application has no more than one independent claim, no more than 10 claims total, no multiply-dependent claims, and the petition fee under 37 CFR 1.17(h), which is currently US$150 for an undiscounted entity. Applicants can enter a preliminary amendment adapting an application for compliance with the petition’s claim requirements. Importantly, the USPTO limits the number of petitions under the Program an application may submit by requiring a certification that no inventor or joint inventor has been named as the inventor or a joint inventor on more than three other nonprovisional applications in which a petition to make special under this Program has been filed.
Applications accepted into the program will advance out of turn only for the first Office action, after which the application will no longer specially advance under the Program during further examination. Applicants submitting a petition should take note that the Program considers a restriction requirement as an Office action, which is not the same for purposes of Patent Term Adjustment determination, and tailor their claims to make the most of the accelerated status.
By Benjamin D. Heuberger, Ph.D., Jason A. Engel, Theo Angelis
Footnotes:
1 https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/10/27/2025-19669/streamlined-claim-set-pilot-program