A USPTO extension of time petition, filed under 37 CFR 1.136(a), buys you additional months to respond to an office action in one-month increments. Fees run from $235 for one extra month up to $3,395 for five, with a 60% discount for small entities and an 80% discount for micro entities.1eCFR. 37 CFR 1.17 – Patent Application and Reexamination Processing Fees The extension is effectively automatic: pay the fee, and the time is yours. You cannot push your total response window past six months from the date the office action issued, no matter how many fees you’re willing to pay.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 35 USC 133 – Time for Prosecuting Application
How Much an Extension Costs
The USPTO charges a single fee that matches the total extension you’re requesting. If you need two extra months, you pay the second-month fee once. You don’t stack the first-month fee underneath it. The rates climb sharply to discourage sitting on a response.
- First month: $235 large entity, $94 small, $47 micro
- Second month: $690 large entity, $276 small, $138 micro
- Third month: $1,590 large entity, $636 small, $318 micro
- Fourth month: $2,495 large entity, $998 small, $499 micro
- Fifth month: $3,395 large entity, $1,358 small, $679 micro
These figures apply to non-provisional utility, design, and plant applications.3United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Fee Schedule Small entity status is available to independent inventors, businesses with fewer than 500 employees, and nonprofits, provided rights have not been assigned or licensed to a larger organization. Micro entity status requires that everyone with an ownership interest earned no more than $251,190 in the preceding calendar year and has not been named on more than four previously filed applications.4United States Patent and Trademark Office. Micro Entity Status
Why the wide fee range? Most office actions on the merits set a three-month shortened response deadline; restriction requirements typically give two months.5United States Patent and Trademark Office. MPEP 710 – Period for Reply An extension fills the gap between that shortened deadline and the six-month statutory ceiling. A three-month office action can be extended up to three additional months. A two-month action can be extended up to four.
How to File the Petition
The request goes on Form PTO/SB/22. You’ll need the eight-digit application serial number, the filing date, the number of months requested, and payment for the matching fee.6United States Patent and Trademark Office. Form PTO/SB/22 – Petition for Extension of Time Most practitioners file the extension alongside their substantive response rather than as a standalone paper.
Submissions go through Patent Center. Sign in with your USPTO.gov account, upload the form or fold the extension request into your response, and apply a digital signature. S-signatures are accepted: type your name between forward slashes, for example /Jane A. Smith/. The signer must insert their own signature personally.7United States Patent and Trademark Office. MPEP 501 – Filing Papers With the US Patent and Trademark Office
Pay by credit card, electronic funds transfer, or a pre-funded USPTO deposit account. Once payment clears, the system generates an electronic filing receipt with a timestamp and confirmation number. Save it. The USPTO retains original paper filings for only one year after scanning them, so your own records may be the only backup if a discrepancy shows up later.
You can skip the paperwork entirely in one common scenario. If your application authorizes the USPTO to charge extension fees to a deposit account, simply filing a late response triggers the extension without a separate petition. There’s no examiner review, no approval waiting period, no discretion involved.8eCFR. 37 CFR 1.136 – Extensions of Time
When You Can’t Use an Automatic Extension
The pay-and-extend process under 1.136(a) is not available in every situation. You cannot use it to respond to decisions from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, to file a reply brief or oral hearing request in an appeal, or during a contested case or derivation proceeding. Certain deadlines in a Notice of Allowability are also non-extendable, including the period for submitting the inventor’s oath or formal drawings.
In those situations, you fall back on a “for cause” extension under 37 CFR 1.136(b). These are not automatic. You must show the USPTO sufficient cause for needing more time, and filing the petition alone does not grant the extension. The petition fee is $235 for a large entity, $94 for a small entity, or $47 for a micro entity, and the request has to be filed on or before the date the reply is due. Even a granted for-cause extension cannot push the response date past the six-month statutory maximum.
Trademark Extensions Are a Different Track
If your matter is a trademark application, the patent rules above don’t apply. Responding to a trademark office action allows one three-month extension for a $125 electronic filing fee, taken before the initial three-month response deadline expires.9United States Patent and Trademark Office. Request for Extension of Time to File a Response Form User Guide Section 66(a) applications filed through the Madrid Protocol already get six months and are not eligible. Intent-to-use applicants filing a Statement of Use can request up to five six-month extensions capped at 36 months from the Notice of Allowance, at $125 per class electronically or $225 per class on paper.10eCFR. 37 CFR 2.89 – Extensions of Time for Filing a Statement of Use
What Happens if You Miss the Six-Month Deadline
Blowing past the statutory ceiling puts your application into abandonment. It’s recoverable, but the price climbs quickly. A petition to revive under 37 CFR 1.137(a) must include the response you should have filed, a statement that the entire delay was unintentional, and the revival fee. Filed within two years of abandonment, the fee is $2,260 for a large entity, $904 for a small entity, or $452 for a micro entity. After two years, those numbers rise to $3,000, $1,200, and $600. You also still owe the extension fee and any other fees that were due when the application went abandoned.
Petitions filed more than two years after abandonment face extra scrutiny. The USPTO may require detailed information about why the delay stretched so long and can deny the petition if the explanation isn’t convincing.11United States Patent and Trademark Office. Revival Based on Unintentional Delay Paying for an extension in advance is always cheaper and simpler than paying for revival after the fact.