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What is the First Action Interview Pilot Program?

The First Action Interview Pilot Program is a six-month program initiated by the United States Patent and Trademark Office back on April 28, 2008. The program hopes to essentially enhance the communication between an applicant and examiner in the patent application process by granting the applicant an interview with the actual examiner prior to a first office action.


This interview will allow the applicant and examiner to discuss all issues relevant to the application on a one-to-one basis at the beginning of the patent application process, thus potentially decreasing the time of the entire review procedure by having patentability issues resolved in a more efficient manner. Before the First Action Interview Pilot Program was started, requesting an interview with an examiner was a viable option, however, this new pilot program makes the interview a standard step in the review process rather than being just a request that the examiner could either accept or deny. This pilot program is currently limited to applications filed within Class 707 [Data processing: database and file management or data structures] and Class 709 [Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomputer data transferring].

 

 
 

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