This may be of interest to anyone developing GREEN products or technologies.

United States: Accelerating Green Technology Patents
22 December 2009
Article by Brian J Laurenzo and Jason M Hunt
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”), on December 8, 2009, implemented a pilot program to accord special status to applications pertaining to green technologies in order to accelerate the examination process for these applications.

United States patent applications, generally, are examined in the order in which they are filed with the USPTO. Under the current patent system in the United States, patent applications may take several years to mature into a patent. By treating an application as “special,” the patent application is advanced out of turn for examination and taken up for examination more quickly than under the traditional system. A mechanism exists by which applicants may request “special status” for an application….

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