We have a case in Technology Center 2100 in which we responded to a non-final Office Action on September 15, 2025.
Normally such a response would have gotten forwarded to the Examiner (by the LIE) within two or three business days.
In this case it got forwarded to the Examiner on January 16, 2026. Yes, it took more than four months for the LIE to do the one or two mouse clicks required to place the response onto the desk of the Examiner.
Four months. Not acceptable.
But it gets worse. We have a case in Technology Center 3600 in which we responded to a final Office Action on January 9, 2026. (The date of the final rejection was October 22, 2025.)
This means that the case will go abandoned on April 22, 2026 unless we somehow secure an allowance.
It has been more than a month, and even now the response has not gotten forwarded to the Examiner.
One month. Not acceptable.
On February 6, 2026, I phoned up the Director of the Technology Center about this service failure. I reached his voice mail. I left a detailed voicemail message for him, asking if he could please arrange for our January 9 response to get forwarded to the Examiner.
Four days have passed, during which (a) I have heard nothing back from the Director of the Technology Center, and (b) our response remains untouched by the LIE (has not been forwarded to the Examiner).
Have others being seeing delays this long? Please post a comment below.
I can’t speak to the USPTO, but there are similar and worse delays at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO). It can take 2 months just for an amendment to be entered. Too slow!