In order to speed up issuance, the patent may be filed as a non-provisional application right away. This gets the application into the queue at the patent office first.
Even though the examiners are supposed to take the applications in order, every examiner has some discretion on which ones they handle. In order to get the application through quickly, the patent attorney should draft the application with the examiner in mind.
First and foremost, the application should be written in clear, concise, and understandable language. Easy to understand figures that are well labeled and demonstrate the idea are key. Excessive length of the specification is a hindrance to the examiner: get to the point and keep it short.
Second, the claims should be written to make the examiner’s job easier. Keep the number of claims down to as few as possible (20 or fewer, but preferably 1 independent claim if you can), and also ensure they are very accurate, use reasonable language, and do not have a lengthy preamble. Some people ensure that the independent claims are at least a hand’s breadth in length, but I don’t subscribe to that technique.
Remember that you can always get some claims allowed and then file a continuation application to go after broader claims in the future.
One of my favorite techniques is to use the Patent Prosecution Highway. This makes the case “special”, and you get on a 14 day docket for the examiner. PPH cases maintain Special status until allowance, which is different than Track One, where you only have Special status until the first final office action. With Track One, the examiner has every incentive to not allow the case and push you to final, but with PPH, the examiner has every incentive to negotiate good claims quickly.
I have filed about 70 PPH cases in the last couple years and my results tend to get allowance on 50% of my cases within 12 months, and most of the remainder cases within 24 months. This data is based in art units where cases typically are pending for 3-5 years.
When BlueIronIP finances patent applications, BlueIronIP generally tries to use the PPH process to get issued patents very fast. By financing the patent costs, the large up front expense of PPH is borne by BlueIronIP, yet your patent will issue very quickly.
