In fiscal year 2021, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) moved to a new methodology for assigning patent applications to patent examiners based on Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC). The First Office Action Estimator has been updated to account for this new methodology. You can estimate how long it will take for a first Office action to be issued on a specific patent application by entering its serial number.
Alternatively, if you have your application serial number, you can also log in to Private PAIR or Patent Center to check estimates on how long it will take for a first Office action to be issued in that application.
Note: A first Office action estimation will not be available for an application if the application has not yet been classified. Most applications should receive classification within three months from filing. If you have questions about applications that have not yet received classification after three months, please contact the Patents Ombudsman at 571-272-5555 or 855-559-8589.
The estimates provided by the First Office Action Estimator are not guaranteed by the USPTO.
Resources
- See the Patents Data Visualization Center for an overall average first Office action estimate
- Classification Main Menu (this includes a search function across the classification taxonomy)
- Cooperative Patent Classification System (CPC)
Definitions
First Office Action
An Office action is a document written by a patent examiner in the course of examination of a patent application. The Office action may cite prior art and gives reasons why the examiner has allowed (approved) the applicant's claims, and/or rejected the claims. A first Office action on the merits (FAOM) is typically the first substantive examination of the application.