No PTA For Divisional Application | PharmaPatents:
When does a 20 year patent turn out to be more than a 20 year patent... Patent Term Adjustments.
Okay, so under certain situations, an extension can be requested to the 20 years that the US has for patent applications after 1995. The idea is that for such applications as pharma the long lead time in all approvals through the PTO and the FDA and more... can significantly reduce the useful life of the patent. So Patent Term Adjustments, PTA, (not to be confused with when your parents got together with teachers and the principal), are sometimes allowed. This is the reason that your friendly Patent Attorney will usually say "a patent is the arrangement with the government to offer a monopoly on your invention for about 20 years when you disclose the invention in the formal patent process".
Okay, so PTAs are sometimes allowed, but the extensions can be very qwerty. In this case, you would think that the term adjustments to the main, parent, application would be afforded to the patent applications associated with dividing that original application. Not so, it would seem.
Very interesting, and a very well written article on the whole issue (POSTED BY COURTENAY C. BRINCKERHOFF)
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