In news that is too good not to post, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has just added new visualization tools to their website.

In Kappos’s Director’s Forum Blog, Dir. Kappos has a revealing post about the new data.

The dashboard introduces six new measures of pendency designed to give a better overall picture of the contributions of different parts of the examination process to application pendency.  For example, the traditional total pendency measure stops the clock with the filing of an RCE, which may not provide an accurate measure of the total time it takes to complete the examination of an application through request for continued examination (RCE) practice.  A new measure, called “Traditional Total Pendency Including RCEs,” looks at pendency of applications from filing of the original application to ultimate disposal of that same application, including any additional time attributable to RCE filings in those applications where RCE filings are made.  Similar measures are provided relative to divisional applications and other types of continuation practice.  We also provide information about pendency for applications in appeal practice.

These new real-time data metric have already helped us at ÆON Law give at least one client an up-to-date estimate on the current state of affairs at the USPTO and we welcome this new transparency.