On Thursday, November 2, 2006, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will host a one-hour webinar on its accelerated examination procedure beginning at 2PM Eastern time. On August 25, 2006, a new procedure was finalized to allow for an applicant to receive a “final decision” from an Examiner within 12 months of filing a patent application. This accelerated examination process requires an applicant to perform his or her own patent search, providing detailed search results to the USPTO at the time of filing, and limits the applicant to a maximum of 3 independent claims. The USPTO has dedicated a specific web page to the Accelerated Examination program, including several additional links in addition to those listed below. According to the general USPTO invitation, the webinar will discuss benefits to the applicants, petitions to make special, specific processing and examination procedures, the information required to be provided by an applicant under this program, the accelerated review period itself, and instructions on how to electronically file such an application on EFS-Web. Registration for this webinar is required (see link below).

USPTO General Invitation: LINK
Webinar Registration: LINK
Accelerated Examination FAQs: LINK
Application Guidelines: LINK
USPTO Search Templates Website: LINK
MPEP § 708.02 (VIII – Accelerated Examination): LINK