The Most and Least Common Patent Petitions at the USPTO

There are two types of patent petitions: petitions that are so routine you can do them in your sleep and those so rare you don’t even know where to start. Here are the most and least common petitions filed at the USPTO.

Petitions are a response to an extraordinary situation during patent prosecution. These are unique requests that deviate from the usual procedures. Looking at the last five years of petition documents, we discovered the most routine and the rarest petitions filed at the USPTO. This analysis was done in April 2022.

Our data parallels that of a recent USPTO analysis of frequently filed petitions. On both lists, we see:

• Petitions with broad requests for action from reviewing offices—for example, OPET, PCT, Technology Center SPRE
• Requests relating to speeding up prosecution, such as joining Track One, Patent Prosecution Highway, or a 12-month accelerated exam
• And miscellaneous requests related to specific components of an application, such as a request to include color images 

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Bringing Some Predictability to Petitions

Now, these are the weird ones. These aren’t technically the rarest petitions out there since some other types just weren’t filed at all in the past five years. But if you worked on one of these, you are one of very few. In fact, these petitions have each been filed less than 15 times in the past five years. The most common of these rare requests – Petition for Extension of Time to Appeal CAFC Granted – has been filed just 13 times.

If you happen to be one of the rare few tasked with preparing one of these petitions, you do not want to waste time drafting language with no standardized text to use as a foundation. This is where Petition Searching can come in handy. 

With Juristat Petition Search, you can identify petitions at the USPTO that resemble your own and structure your request with similar phrasing. By searching through more than 600,000 petition documents dating back to 2015, you can review past petitions, understand Agency decisions, and use historical context to strengthen your application.

Juristat Petition Search allows you to:

• Save time when training associates without going to a cluttered DMS
• Start from a proven foundation, with phrasing that found success at the USPTO
• Draw from previous cases and other metrics to make decisions with confidence
• Manage client expectations with a strategy backed by data

Whether you are looking to save time on a routine request, research rare and successful petitions, or advise clients on anticipated timeline, Petition Search makes Juristat the one centralized prosecution tool you need to proceed with confidence. 

Want to see our Petition Search in action? Watch our on-demand webinar, Bringing Some Predictability to Petitions, or schedule a personalized walkthrough.