What constitutes “unintentional delay” in paying maintenance fees?
“Unintentional delay” in paying maintenance fees is a crucial concept for reinstating expired patents. According to MPEP 2590:
“A person seeking reinstatement of an expired patent should not make a statement that the delay in payment of the maintenance fee was unintentional unless the entire delay was unintentional, including the period from discovery that the maintenance fee was not timely paid until payment of the maintenance fee.”
This means that the entire period of delay, from the missed payment deadline to the filing of the petition, must be unintentional. Intentional delays, even after discovering the missed payment, can disqualify a patent from reinstatement.
For delays exceeding two years, the USPTO requires additional explanation to establish that the entire delay was unintentional.
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