What is the “due care” standard for reinstating reduced patent term adjustment?

The “due care” standard for reinstating reduced patent term adjustment is higher than the ordinary due care standard. According to the MPEP, “the phrases ‘all due care’ and ‘unable to respond’ invoke a higher degree of care than the ordinary due care standard of 35 U.S.C. 133, as well as the ‘reasonable efforts to conclude processing or examination [or prosecution] of an application’ standard of 35 U.S.C. 154(b)(2)(C)(i) and (iii).”

Examples of situations that may meet this standard include:

• Insufficient time to obtain necessary test data
• Inability to reply due to a natural disaster
• Testing required for reply that necessarily took longer than three months
• Illness or death of a sole practitioner responsible for prosecuting the application

To learn more:

• patent term adjustment
• due care standard
• reinstatement
• reduced PTA