USPTO Offers Expedited Examination for Cancer-Related Patent Applications
To further accelerate innovation in the health and medical fields, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced the Cancer Moonshot Expedited Examination Pilot Program, a new program beginning on 1 February 2023 to offer fast-track review for patent applications relating to a broad scope of technologies to prevent cancer and cancer mortality.
Under the program, patent applications directed to the oncology and smoking cessation fields and containing method of treatment claims from among six specified treatment types may be advanced out of turn for examination and reviewed earlier with accorded special status until a first office action. The pilot program, in support of US government’s Cancer Moonshot initiative, aims at reducing the cancer mortality rate by at least 50% within 25 years. The program is scheduled to run until either 31 January 2025 or the date by which the USPTO accepts a total of 1,000 grantable petitions (whichever is earlier).
The new program is an expansion of and replaces the Cancer Immunotherapy Pilot Program, which was launched in 2016 to expedite examination for eligible patent applications pertaining to methods of treating a cancer using immunotherapy and will terminate on 31 January 2023.
