We try to track the First Office Action Predictions for many of our pending patent applications for one reason or another. By now there is a very clear trend of FOAPs for newly filed US design patent applications. It suggests that there is quite a backlog of unexamined US design patent applications.
Our most recent dozen or so US design patent applications were about half article-of-manufacture and half GUI (graphical user interface). The average FOAP for the AOM cases was about thirty-one months, and the average FOAP for the GUI cases was about the same. That is, the USPTO is predicting that it will examine these design patent applications in about October of 2017.
What FOAP values have you been receiving in your recently filed US design patent applications? Drop me a note or post a comment, please.