Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) is a process carried out by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that grants day-for-day credits to the normal patent term based on delays in prosecution at the USPTO. Any USPTO delay that occurs during prosecution of an application is offset by delays caused by applicants.

The default term of a typical patent is twenty years, counted from the earliest priority date of the patent application. Congress realized that the patent prosecution process can be rather lengthy, which eats into the patent’s lifespan, and so provided PTA to increase the life of certain patents. PTA is intended to compensate for USPTO delays in patent prosecution.

We at Malai Ip Services, review all of the events in prosecution to determine the correct PTA. Our report is provided with details of our calculation and comparing it to the PTO's calculation.