New patent applications test the brink
Federal Register ’24, (Wednesday, April 3, 2024)] “Setting and Adjusting Patent Fees During Fiscal Year 2025; Proposed Rule,” Federal Register / Vol. 89 , No. 65 / Wednesday, April 3, 2024 / Proposed Rules, accessed July 10, 2024, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-04-03/html/2024-06250.htm
The volume and rapid increase of continuing applications negatively impacts the USPTO's workload and docketing practices. For example, it is difficult for the agency to balance patent resources between the examination of ``new'' (i.e., noncontinuing) applications disclosing new technology and innovations, and continuing applications, which, in some cases, are a repetition of previously examined applications either issued as patents or that have become abandoned. See e.g., FY 2021 pendency statistics review presented at the PPAC quarterly meeting on Nov. 18, 2021, available on the USPTO website at https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/20211115-PPAC-FY21-pendency-stats-review.pdf (note that about 80% of continuations have a patented parent).