David Kappos, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) said that the deadline for filing petitions under the Green Technology Pilot Program has been extended from December 8, 2010 to December 31, 2011.
One of the reasons for the extension is the limited number of applications that it has received. Patent applications which were made before December 8, 2009 can also be submitted for assessors to examine them ahead of others.
Since its launch a year ago the program has granted 790 petitions for faster review and 79 patents. The average time for a first action on a green technology is 49 days as compared to a typical two year wait for others at the patent office.
The extension to Dec. 31, 2011, will give the agency more time to meet its goal of 3,000 applications as per David Kappos.