First Office Action pendency is the average number of months from the patent application filing date to the date a First Office Action is mailed by the USPTO. The term "pendency" means that the application is pending or awaiting a decision. This measure of First Office Action Pendency includes the time until a first action by the USPTO, as well as any time awaiting a reply from an applicant to submit all parts of their application. The first action pendency number displayed, measured in months, is the average for all applications that have a First Office Action mailed over a three-month (one quarter) period.
Total pendency including Request for Continued Examination (RCEs) is the average number of months from the patent application filing date to the ultimate disposal of the application, irrespective of any intermediate abandonments due to the filing of an RCE.
This is the measure of total pendency, as traditionally measured. Historically, pendency has been measured as the average number of months from the patent application filing date to the date the application has reached final disposition (e.g., issued as a patent or abandoned) which is called a “disposal”. This pendency includes the time periods awaiting action by the USPTO, as well as any time awaiting reply from an applicant.
The Traditional Total Pendency number displayed, measured in months, is the average for all applications--excluding applications in which an Request for Continued Examination (RCE) has been filed--which are “disposed” over a three-month period.
Pendency of Applications that include at least one Request for Continued Examination (RCE) is the average number of months from the date of filing an application to the ultimate disposal for only those applications for which one or more RCEs were filed. This differs from “Traditional Total Pendency including RCEs” because this measure does not include applications which reach disposal without an RCE ever having been filed. This measure does not include any application with a Continuation, Continuation-in-Part, or Divisional in the chain of applications.
Pendency from Request for Continued Examination (RCE) filing to next office action is the average pendency in months from the filing of an RCE to the mailing of the next office action.