.... this might address that "18-24 month timeframe", but I found this on another NEOM-related board, with a link provided to the info. This is excerpted from a 2005 Senate judiciary hearing.
PLEASE READ TO THE END AS I HAVE APPENDED ADDITIONAL INFORMATION NOT PRESENTED IN THE ORIGINAL POST QUOTED FROM
"The statute authorizing reexamination proceedings requires the USPTO to conduct this process with “special dispatch.” Frequently, these proceedings require more than 100 hours of examiner time to complete. And today, a large number of reexamination proceedings have been pending before the USPTO for more than four years without resolution. We are just as dissatisfied with these results as are the stakeholders in the system. As I mentioned earlier, reexamination proceedings are important to patent owners and to the public as a means of resolving the issue of patentability without resorting to the high-cost option of litigation."
THE FOLLOWING IS FOUND A BIT FURTHER ALONG IN THAT SAME HEARING TRANSCRIPT:
"Our goal is that, by the end of FY 2005, we will have resolved all instances of ex parte reexamination proceedings that have been pending with an examiner for more than two years. Specifically, of the current 1,200 pending ex parte reexamination proceedings, we hope to resolve 420, or over one-third of our current reexamination workload. If we had not undertaken this challenge, the total number of reexaminations pending for more than two years would have risen to 600 by the end of this year. An additional commitment is that, by the end of FY 2005, the USPTO will set a defined time period for all future ex parte reexamination proceedings to be completed before the examiner, and the period will be less than the two years achieved in fiscal year 2005."
SO, SEEMS THE TARGET WAS "LESS THAN (the) TWO YEARS". HAS THERE BEEN IMPROVEMENT ON THAT?
Success - Have your or JP made contact with the USPTO regarding the reexamination office review general time table. I spent a little time trying to tie this down to a general time table. I think there is some time tables in the U.S.C. regulation area somewhere. I had to give up the search due to lack of time to devote to the issue. I thought someone else might do some checking and research on this.
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