Brett Trout
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is once again modernizing its operations—this time by accelerating the timeline for patent issuance. Beginning May 13, 2025, the window between receiving an Issue Notification and the official Issue Date shrunk from roughly three weeks to just two weeks. While this change is designed to help applicants bring their innovations to market faster, it also means you will need to move faster too—particularly when it comes to filing continuation or divisional applications.
Why the Change?
The shift stems from the USPTO’s ongoing efforts to streamline operations through electronic patent issuance (eGrants). This digital-first approach began in April 2023 and has been gaining momentum. The reduced timeframe is made possible by eliminating redundancies and relying more heavily on the Patent Center, the USPTO’s online platform.
USPTO claims this will “allow patent holders to bring their investments to market earlier” and “provide earlier protection for inventions.” While that’s good news on its face, the practical impact is more complex.
What You Need to Know
- Effective May 13, 2025, the USPTO will shorten the window between Issue Notification and Issue Date to about two weeks.
- Applicants will have less time to file continuation or divisional applications after paying the issue fee.
- For those not enrolled in the e-Office Action program, patent issuance may occur before they even receive the Issue Notification.
- This could eliminate the opportunity to file a Quick Path Information Disclosure Statement (QPIDS), a critical tool used to disclose new prior art after allowance but before issuance.
Why Would You Want Both a Patent and a Patent Application at the Same Time?
While most people think once your patent issues you are done, this is not always the best strategy. The problem is that not all patents are created equal. Some are broad and some are narrow, making them easy for competitors to “design around” and avoid infringement. Since narrow patents are easier to get than broad patents, it is often advisable to accept a narrower patent and, before that patent issues, file a continuing application, to try to get a broader patent. Since once your patent issues, it is pretty much set in stone, having a patent application still on file allows you to focus subsequent patents issuing from that application on exactly the technology competitors seek to exploit.
Practical Implications: Act Before You Pay
The Patent Office bible, otherwise known as The Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP), states that ensure copendency, you must file any continuing applications before your parent patent issues. MPEP § 211.01(b). That window just got a lot smaller—and for some, practically nonexistent.
Filing a continuing patent application before your patent issues is critical to preserving your ability to keep that patent application alive after your patent issues. Once a patent is officially granted, you can no longer claim the benefit of its pending status, which means you must file any continuation, divisional, or continuation-in-part application while the parent application is still active. With the USPTO’s expedited issuance process now reducing the time between issue notification and grant to as little as two weeks, the risk of missing this narrow window has increased significantly. Filing early ensures you maintain copendency, allowing you to refine claim strategy, pursue broader or narrower protection, or cover different aspects of your invention—all without starting over or losing priority rights.
If you wait to decide on whether to file a continuation until after paying the issue fee, you may already be out of time. The USPTO may issue your patent before you receive the Issue Notification, leaving you with no opportunity to file follow-on applications.
Recommendation: Always provide instructions regarding continuation or divisional filings prior to paying the issue fee. In many cases, filing a continuation application concurrently with the issue fee may be your safest option.
Be Proactive: Build a Post-Allowance Strategy
While issuing your patent sooner is typically better, given the Patent Office’s reduced timeline to patent issuance, it is more critical than ever to determine your long-term patent strategy before you pay your patent issue fee. Your patent attorney should let you know the scope of the allowed claims well before the patent issues. You should work closely with your patent attorney to make sure that if the allowed claims are not as broad as you prefer, that your patent attorney files a continuing application as soon as possible, but in no event later than the payment of the issue fee for the allowed claims.
As the window has also shortened for you letting the Patent Office know about prior art (similar inventions in the public domain) you find after the payment of the issue fee (the QPIDS program) it is also imperative that you let your patent attorney know immediately if you become aware of any new prior art) before the date the patent actually issues.
Bottom Line
The USPTO’s accelerated issuance process is a double-edged sword: it offers faster patent protection but demands quicker decisions from you. Firms and in-house teams must respond accordingly by adopting faster, more proactive post-allowance processes. Given the shortened response periods, it is important to solidify these processes with your patent attorney well in advance of the date the Patent Office allows your patent.
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