AI-First Triage: A Path for Quality and Pendency Reduction at the USPTO
By Michael Borella, JD Supra, October 27, 2025
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is trapped in a perpetual battle on two fronts. First, there is their application backlog, which can extend patent pendency by months or years. Second is the systemic challenge of patent quality. These two problems are not independent of one another. Low-quality examination is characterized by incomplete searches and rushed analysis, which can lead to rounds of Requests for Continued Examination (RCEs), appeals, and even costly post-grant litigation. Conversely, under pressure to reduce pendency, examiners may conduct less-thorough examinations, thereby harming quality.
For decades, the solutions have been incremental, bureaucratic, or both. Examiner interviews, accelerated examination programs, and various pilot programs have nibbled at the edges of the problem. The most recent, the “Streamlined Claim Set Pilot Program,” continues this tradition by offering a simple, but flawed bargain: trade your claims for a spot at the front of the examination queue.
