Track One prioritized examination

Who can use Track One

Prioritized examination comes from section 11(h) of the America Invents Act and is set out in 37 CFR 1.102(e). A Track One request under 1.102(e)(1) must be filed with an original utility or plant nonprovisional application under 35 U.S.C. 111(a). "Original" includes continuations, divisionals and continuations-in-part, but each one needs its own request; status in a parent does not carry over (MPEP 708.02(b)). Claiming foreign priority is fine.

Excluded: design, reissue and provisional applications, reexaminations, and PCT applications that have not entered the US national stage. A 371 national stage application cannot use Track One at entry, but can get prioritized examination later with an RCE. If you want Track One for a PCT family, the route is a bypass continuation under 111(a) filed with the request.

What must be on file on day one

• The request itself. It must be present at filing and cannot be added later or refiled to fix a defect.
• A specification with at least one claim, any necessary drawings, and the inventor's oath or declaration, which can be postponed if a complete application data sheet is filed (1.53(f)(3)).
• For utility applications, filing through the USPTO's electronic system, with the filing, search and examination fees paid.
• No more than 4 independent claims, 30 total claims and no multiple dependent claims. If you file over the limit, you have one month from the first decision on the request to cancel the excess, and that month cannot be extended.

The 4/30 limit is the drafting constraint that matters. A claim set written for normal examination often has five or six independent claims across system, method and medium categories. For Track One, decide which four carry the commercial value and put the rest in a continuation. Our guide on how to write patent claims covers structuring a claim set that holds up within those limits.

Fees by entity size

Fees effective January 19, 2025, from the USPTO fee schedule (last revised August 14, 2026) and 37 CFR 1.16 to 1.18. The small entity filing fee shown is the $70 rate for applications filed electronically (1.16(a)); Track One utility applications must be filed that way. Other fees, including the issue fee, are in USPTO patent fees.

Worked example. A large entity files a Track One application with 4 independent claims and 30 claims in total. On top of $6,665, it owes excess claim fees for one independent claim over three ($600) and ten claims over twenty ($2,000), so $9,265 at filing, before any application size fee for a specification over 100 sheets. Trimming to 3 independent and 20 total claims saves $2,600. A small entity pays 40% of each of those claim fees, and a micro entity 20%.

If the request is dismissed, the prioritized examination fee is refunded automatically, but the processing fee is kept and the application fees are not refunded. If prioritized status is granted and later terminated, nothing is refunded (MPEP 708.02(b), subsection III).

The annual cap

Since July 8, 2025, 37 CFR 1.102(e) says no more than 20,000 prioritized examination requests will be accepted in any fiscal year, up from 15,000 (USPTO Track One page). The cap covers both Track One and requests filed with an RCE. The USPTO fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30. The MPEP still says 15,000 because its latest revision predates the change; the rule text controls. The USPTO dashboard shows Track One receipts of roughly 1,300 to 1,800 a month over the 12 months to September 2026. Per MPEP 708.02(b), the USPTO posts a message in its filing system when granted requests near the limit, and once the limit is reached it turns off the ability to file a request. A filing planned for late September should be checked against that notice.

How fast it is: USPTO timing data

The USPTO's goal is a final disposition within 12 months, on average, of the grant of prioritized status. Its Track One dashboard reports how it is doing. Fiscal year 2026 averages, as reported in September 2026:

The dashboard defines final disposition as a final rejection, a notice of abandonment or a notice of allowance. Over the 12 months to September 2026 it counted 9,123 allowances, 5,432 final rejections and 616 abandonments in Track One cases. Track One is fast, not lenient: a final rejection five months after grant still has to be dealt with through the usual options after a final rejection.

For comparison, the USPTO said in October 2025 that first-action pendency for applications outside the PPH had grown from under 15 months in 2020 to over 22 months (USPTO notice).

What ends special status

Under MPEP 708.02(b), prioritized examination ends early if you:

• file a petition for an extension of time, including one to answer a pre-examination notice such as a Notice to File Missing Parts. Before grant, an extension request prevents the status from being granted at all;
• file a request for suspension of action; or
• amend the claims beyond 4 independent, 30 total, or add a multiple dependent claim.

It also ends at final disposition: a notice of allowance, a final rejection, a notice of appeal, completion of examination, an RCE, or abandonment. The application then moves to the regular docket for any appeal or RCE. Once special status has ended at a final rejection or allowance, the claim limits no longer apply, so you can rewrite allowable dependent claims into independent form. An IDS does not end prioritized status. Reply within the 3-month period every time; the extension that would be routine in a regular case ends Track One.

To restart prioritized treatment after an RCE, a single request under 1.102(e)(2) may be granted per application, filed with or after the RCE and before the next action. See request for continued examination.

Other ways to speed up a US application

Patent Prosecution Highway, including with the EPO

Under the PPH, once a partner office finds at least one claim allowable, you can ask the USPTO to examine corresponding claims out of turn. There is no fee. The USPTO, EPO, JPO, Korea's intellectual property office and CNIPA run the IP5 PPH pilot, which a USPTO Official Gazette notice extended to January 5, 2029. Positive PCT work product counts too, so a written opinion from the EPO as International Searching Authority finding claims allowable can support a request. The US claims must sufficiently correspond to the allowable claims, and the USPTO must not have started examining the application. The request uses form PTO/SB/20GLBL; in a 371 case, use the current form so the request also asks to start national stage processing early, or the benefit waits until 30 months from priority.

In October 2025 the USPTO changed how it dockets PPH cases, so that their first-action pendency is roughly half that of other applications in the same technology, rather than far shorter (USPTO notice). At the time it reported PPH first-action pendency of about 7.5 months. PPH is still the cheapest acceleration for families where Europe moves first, but Track One is faster where speed is the point. For the European side of a family, see our guide to the European patent application.

Petition to make special for age or health

37 CFR 1.102(c) allows a petition to make special without a fee where the basis is an inventor's or joint inventor's age or health. For age, the petition needs evidence that an inventor is 65 or older, such as the inventor's statement or a registered practitioner's statement that they have evidence of it. For health, it needs evidence, such as a doctor's certificate, that the inventor might not be available to help with prosecution if the application ran its normal course (MPEP 708.02). It can be filed as an ePetition. Medical information becomes public with the file unless submitted under the procedure in MPEP 724.02. Unlike Track One, there are no claim limits and no cap.

Accelerated examination has ended for utility applications

Since 2006, other petitions to make special have had to meet the accelerated examination program's requirements, including a pre-examination search and an examination support document. The USPTO stopped accepting accelerated examination petitions for utility applications on July 10, 2025; it remains for design applications. Many older guides still list it. For a utility application today, the choices are Track One, PPH, and age or health petitions.

Is Track One worth it?

It usually is when a granted patent has a near-term use: a licensing deal, an investor's diligence, a competitor already on the market, or a product with a short life. It also suits a continuation aimed at a specific competing product, or a divisional that would otherwise sit in the queue for a year or more. For a micro entity, the $903 fee is modest against attorney costs.

It is weaker where the claim scope is not settled, since speed only brings the rejection sooner, or where you will need extensions to get test data or foreign associate instructions. Track One also does not shorten the patent term, which runs 20 years from filing either way, and faster issuance means less patent term adjustment for USPTO delay. If your priority filing is a provisional, the Track One request goes with the nonprovisional; see provisional patent applications.

More USPTO guides

• How to file a provisional patent application (US)

  What a US provisional must contain, the USPTO fees, the 12-month deadline under 35 U.S.C. 119(e), and when to skip it.

• USPTO patent fees (2026)

  Every USPTO patent fee for large, small and micro entities, from filing to maintenance, with a fee calculator.

• Patent drawing requirements: USPTO, EPO and India

  37 CFR 1.84, the EPO rules that replaced Rule 46 EPC, and Indian rule 15, compared side by side.

• How to write patent claims: USPTO, EPO and India

  Claim structure and worked examples, then the claim rules and fees at the USPTO, the EPO and the Indian Patent Office, side by side.

• How to respond to a USPTO office action

  Reply deadlines and extension fees, 101, 102, 103 and 112 rejections, interviews, and options after a final rejection.

• Types of patent searches, and which one you need

  Patentability, freedom-to-operate, invalidity and landscape searches compared by purpose, timing, scope and deliverable.

• Patentability search: how to check novelty before you file

  What counts as prior art under 35 U.S.C. 102 and Art. 54 EPC, the grace period gap, search steps and how to read results.

• Freedom-to-operate search in the US and Europe

  In-force claims only, legal status checks at the USPTO, EPO and UPC, FTO opinions after Halo, and design-arounds.

• Invalidity search: prior art to challenge a patent

  IPR, PGR, EPO opposition and UPC revocation deadlines, prior art dates, standards documents and claim charts.

• Patent landscape analysis, step by step

  Building a CPC and keyword dataset, cleaning families and names, the metrics that matter and the 18-month publication lag.

• How to use USPTO Patent Public Search

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• Google Patents search guide

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• The Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC), explained

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• Patent search Boolean operators and search strings

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• How to respond to a 35 U.S.C. 101 rejection

  The Alice/Mayo steps in MPEP 2106, Ex parte Desjardins and the 2024-2026 USPTO guidance, Berkheimer evidence and Rule 132 eligibility declarations.

• How to respond to a 35 U.S.C. 102 rejection

  Anticipation under MPEP 2131, AIA 102(a)(1) and (a)(2), the 102(b) exceptions, inherency and Rule 130 declarations.

• How to respond to a 35 U.S.C. 103 rejection

  Graham and the KSR rationales in MPEP 2143, teaching away, motivation to combine, secondary considerations with nexus, and Rule 132 evidence.

• How to respond to a 35 U.S.C. 112 rejection

  Written description and enablement after Amgen, 112(b) indefiniteness, 112(f) means-plus-function after Williamson, and 112(d) dependent claims.

• The PCT application: timeline, fees and national phase

  The international phase month by month, receiving Office and ISA fees in CHF, USD and EUR, national phase deadlines by office, and a deadline calculator.

• Entering the US national stage under 35 U.S.C. 371

  The 30-month deadline and revival, the 371 requirements, national stage fees by entity size, and 371 versus a bypass continuation.

• The US foreign filing license (35 U.S.C. 184)

  When a US-made invention needs a license to be filed abroad, the six-month rule, expedited and retroactive licenses, and the Indian and European equivalents.

• Filing a US patent from Europe or India

  The 2026 US practitioner rule for foreign applicants, Paris priority and certified copies, small entity status, PCT or direct, fees and translations.

• What is a utility patent?

  What a US utility patent covers under 35 U.S.C. 101, the parts of the application in 37 CFR 1.77 order, the 20-year term and USPTO costs.

• Design patents in the United States

  What a design patent protects, drawings and the single claim, the 15-year term, Hague filings, LKQ v. GM, and design vs utility patents.

• How to file a nonprovisional patent application

  Required parts and fees, claiming a provisional within 12 months, DOCX filing in Patent Center, and what happens after you file.

• Provisional vs nonprovisional patent application

  The two US filings side by side, the cost of each route, the effect on term and publication, and a guide to which to file.

• Continuation, CIP and divisional applications

  Copendency, patent term, double patenting and terminal disclaimers, the 2025 continuing application fee, and continuation strategy.

• How much does a patent cost?

  USPTO fees by entity size from filing to the last maintenance fee, what drives professional fees, EPO fees, and an estimator.

• How to patent an idea in the US

  Nine steps from patentability and search to provisional filing, Patent Center, examination and maintenance, with the USPTO's free help programs.

• Small entity vs micro entity status

  Who qualifies under 37 CFR 1.27 and 1.29, the 2026 income limit, SB/15A and SB/15B, license traps, fixing errors, and an eligibility checker.

• How long does a patent last?

  US utility and design terms, patent term adjustment and extension, terminal disclaimers, maintenance fee deadlines, Europe and India, with an expiry estimator.

• Can AI write a patent application?

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• Restriction requirements and election of species

  How to answer a USPTO restriction or election of species requirement, from traverse and rejoinder to divisionals and unity in 371 cases.

• Options after a final rejection

  Amendment after final, advisory actions, the end of AFCP 2.0, RCE, pre-appeal and appeal, with fees, timing and USPTO outcome data.

• Request for continued examination (RCE)

  What 37 CFR 1.114 requires, first and later RCE fees, patent term effects, and when an RCE beats an appeal.

• Information disclosure statements (IDS)

  The duty of disclosure, IDS timing windows and fees, the 2025 size fee, EPO search reports, Therasense and QPIDS.

• PTAB ex parte appeals

  Notice of appeal to decision step by step, with fees, deadlines and the PTAB's FY 2026 pendency and outcome statistics.

• 35 U.S.C., annotated: US patent law section by section

  The current text of 34 key sections of Title 35 with plain-English summaries, key cases, 37 CFR rules and MPEP references.

All guides, by patent office