← Back to Filing and Fees

After-Final Practice Without AFCP 2.0

USPTO decision; 14 December 2024 was the last day to request participation. Read from the primary document; quotations verified against its own text.

What it says

After proposing a fee for it and receiving critical comments, the USPTO decided to allow the After Final Consideration Pilot Program 2.0 to expire, setting December 14, 2024 as the last day to submit a request for participation.

For years, AFCP 2.0 gave applicants a free additional look after a final rejection, including examiner time for an interview.

The USPTO proposed charging a fee for it, received critical comments, and let the program expire instead. December 14, 2024 was the last day to request participation.

What is gone is a no-cost route that many prosecution habits were built around. The routes that remain are the ones that always existed.

What This Does Not Decide

This page does not tell you what to do after a final rejection. It reports that a program ended, when, and the reason the Office gave. What any particular prosecution should do next is a decision for counsel with the file in front of them.
  • It does not recommend an after-final strategy.
  • It does not say what any remaining route costs or achieves in a given case.
  • It concerns procedure and cost, not patentability.

Educational, not legal advice. This page reports what an authority says. Applying it to a matter is work for a registered practitioner with the file in front of them.

Sources

  • USPTO, expiration of the After Final Consideration Pilot Program 2.0 (2024)
  • Back to the cluster