The COVID-19 pandemic launched a healthcare innovation race without parallel in recent history. Recognizing the need for swift action, companies large and small across the healthcare industry jumped into action to do their part to develop diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines for COVID-19. Now that roughly two years have passed since the peak of the pandemic, we have a fuller body of COVID-19-related patenting data from the USPTO and patent offices around the world. While several studies have analyzed COVID-19-related patents — notably, the WIPO 2022 study of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics — none have focused specifically on COVID-19 diagnostics patents. 

2022 was a year of change at the USPTO, while familiar trends once again dominated in the legislature and the judiciary. Below are a few of the most important patent developments of the year.

A new study from the Centre for Economic Policy Research tracks the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on international patent filings and comes up with some surprising results. 

The USPTO recently issued the 2020 Citizen Centric Report. The report is a companion to its 2020 Performance and Accountability Report, and it compares the agency’s performance to previous years while providing essential facts and figures. How did the USPTO generally do in 2020?

The USPTO recently announced a companion to the COVID-19 Prioritized Examination Pilot Program, the COVID Fast-Track Appeals Pilot Program. The goal is to expedite the processing of ex-parte appeals for applications related to COVID-19.

2020 is not exactly what we expected, was it? Business has felt anything but usual. Now, at the end of the year, we have time to reflect, consider new best practices and areas of improvement, and keep our fingers crossed that 2021 will be at least a tiny bit less surprising.

Much has been made about the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. While it is clear that the pandemic and its associated lockdowns have resulted in a sharp economic contraction, it is unclear what effect—if any—it will have on the USPTO in terms of patent filing and other patent prosecution-related activity.

With so much going on in the world during the first half of 2020 — a global pandemic, an economic recession, and widespread protest movements — developments in the intellectual property sphere have largely flown under the radar. But that does not mean 2020 has been bereft of patent news.

Now is not the time to be idle. There are plenty of steps in-house IP departments can take now to ensure team productivity, strategic budgeting, and a strong patent portfolio.

The USPTO has announced that, in accordance with the CARES Act, it is further extending the deadlines to file certain patent-related documents or fees to June 1, 2020.