New calculated field suggestion - EBD
-
The USPTO is instituting new fees on continuations/divisionals/CIPs January 19, 2025, that are based on how long ago the "EBD" (earliest benefit date) for the application is. The EBD is the earliest US non-provisional date that the continuing application claims priority benefit to (a PCT application is viewed as a US non-provisional). If the EBD is more than 6 years ago and no more than 9 years ago, a $2700 fee is due (undiscounted). If more than 9 years ago, then the fee is $4000. Federal register notice is here.
It would be very helpful if AppColl could have fields that indicate the EBD and the number of years since the EBD for each US non-provisional application (or at least, each continuing application). Such fields would ideally be available via the Matters Reports interface so that we can generate reports with the data.
The EBD would be calculated by looking at each US non-provisional application listed as a priority connection for such an application and then using the earliest filing date for those connections as the EBD.
NOTE: The Federal Register does note that if priority to a US provisional is claimed using 35 USC 120 instead of 35 USC 119, then such a provisional would be considered for the EBD. Since AppColl doesn't track what kind of benefit claim is made, it technically does not know if a provisional should or should not be included in the EBD calculation. However, I am unaware of any scenario in which anyone would actually want to claim priority benefit to a provisional using 35 USC 120, and AppColl's working assumption when filling out ADSs is to use 35 USC 119, so I think it is safe to assume that any provisionals that are in the priority chain were claimed via 35 USC 119 and thus should not be considered in the EBD calculation.
Can this be done?
Christian
-
@gregg_appcoll this is really great news. Would it also be possible to have it tell us how many RCEs have been filed in a case?
-
Yes this will be done by year-end.
-
@gregg_appcoll Given the timeline, it would be helpful to have this feature before end of year. Any chance of that?
-
@ChristianS9906 Got it. I will add this as a new feature request.
-
@gregg_appcoll Thanks for responding, Gregg--the idea would be to ignore a) non-US priority apps and b) US provisionals for the purpose of calculating the EBD.
-
Hi Christian,
We can probably do this with the assumption that priority claims are made based on 35 USC 119. Just so I am crystal clear, we would put the EBD as the earliest filed application whether it's provisional or not? Or ignore the provisional's filing date?
Gregg
