BioFuels Journal

Intellectual property attorney Paul Craane, partner at Marshall, Gerstein & Borun LLP, makes the following points regarding the recent announcement that the United States Patent and Trademark Office would like to extend their Green Technology Pilot Program to speed up the green tech patent process.

"In a notice on related data collection issues, the United States Patent and Trademark Office suggested that an extension of the Green Technology Pilot Program will be forthcoming.

"Foreshadowing a formal announcement, the October 20 notice suggested two major changes for the program.

"First, the expiration date of the program would move from December 8, 2010 to December 31, 2011.

"Second, and perhaps more importantly, the USPTO will permit applications filed after the December 8, 2009 implementation date to petition for inclusion in the program.

"Previously, only applications filed before this date were considered.

"The Green Technology Pilot Program permits applicants to accelerate the examination of their applications, potentially reducing the time between filing and final action by several months.

"Both the official fees and the legal costs of taking advantage of this program are extremely modest, especially when considered relative to the costs of taking advantage of the existing accelerated examination program.

"Any acceleration of examination will result in an acceleration of costs attendant to examination.

"Consequently, some small companies and start-ups may not be able to financially support aggressive use of the program.

"However, this program does represent a cost-effective way to move an application to issuance sooner, which may have a significant positive effect on companies looking to increasing their patent portfolio preliminary to strategic financing discussions, for example.

"This is perhaps the most recent sign of the administration's willingness to foster the research, development and use of green technologies.

"In addition to this Department of Commerce-based venture, the Department of Defense has pushed itself to become a major consumer of alternative energies, including biofuels.

"Only last week, the Department of the Navy and the Small Business Administration announced new initiatives targeting sustainable energy programs."

For more information, call 312-422-1333.

See Related Websites/Articles:

• Marshall, Gerstein & Borun LLP

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