USPTO to Provide Patent Grants Electronically—What Patent Applicants Need to Know

Once a patent Applicant pays an issue fee after receiving a notice of allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), an issue notification follows shortly thereafter. The issue notification provides the Applicant with the patent number and an issue date. Continuation applications can be filed up to and on the day of the issue date mentioned in the issue notification. Before the USPTO switched to providing patent grants electronically, there was a significant amount of time (usually more than two weeks) between the date the issue notification is mailed and the issue date. Read more