On April 14, 2025, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced the suspension of Expedited Examination for Design Patent Applications ("Rocket Docket"), effective April 17, 2025. The stated purpose of the decision is to address growing backlogs and challenges associated with the Rocket Docket system.1
The Rocket Docket system provided for expedited examination of design patent applications. Average wait time for regular, non-expedited applications is 15 months, or more. The Rocket Docket system reduced this examination pendency to less than 6 months in most instances, upon payment of the requisite fees and submission of detailed —and often quite laborious—prior art search results.
However, between 2019 and 2024, the USPTO observed a significant increase in requests for expedited examination of design applications, resulting in a 560% increase in requests since the system's introduction. According to USPTO statistics, initially less than 1% of applications have requests for expedited examination. Today, however, approximately 20% of design applications have requests for expedited examination. As USPTO design examiners are given more time to examine design applications that are filed with a Rocket Docket request, this large increase has led to a substantial backlog of unexamined regular, that is, non-expedited, applications.
By suspending the expedited examination program, the USPTO aims to reallocate approximately 36,000 examiner hours annually and reduce the overall pendency of design applications.
Additionally, the USPTO has experienced a surge in applications fraudulently claiming micro entity status, in addition to expedited examination. This surge has led to a loss in fee revenue—due to the reduced fees associated with micro entity status—and longer examination times for all applicants. By suspending the expedited examination program, the USPTO also hopes to reduce the number of fraudulently-filed certifications of micro entity status.
Applicants who currently, and properly, take advantage of the Rocket Docket program will need to adjust their future filing strategies accordingly. For any application filed on or after April 17, 2025, the USPTO will reject any new request for expedited examination, as well as any renewed request for expedited examination. Applications which are already filed and have proper requests for expedited examination will still be examined under the expedited examination procedure.
Footnotes
1. https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/rocket-suspension-20250408.pdf
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