USPTO Sunsets the After Final Consideration Pilot Program 2.0 (AFCP 2.0)

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced that it is temporarily extending the After Final Consideration Pilot Program 2.0 (AFCP 2.0) through December 14, 2024, followed by termination of the program. The USPTO will not accept any AFCP 2.0 Requests after December 14th. 

According to the USPTO, “[b]ecause the public is not widely receptive to paying a fee to participate in the AFCP 2.0, the USPTO has decided to terminate the program after a brief extension to December 14, 2024.”  There is currently no USPTO fee for filing an AFCP 2.0 Request.  However, the USPTO proposed for fiscal year 2025 a $500 fee (undiscounted) for filing an AFCP 2.0 Request, ostensibly to “offset the USPTO’s costs of administering the AFCP 2.0”.

The USPTO indicated that the extension through December 14th is “to provide program users with reasonable time to adjust to the program’s upcoming termination should they be in the process of preparing a request for consideration under AFCP 2.0.” 

Regular after-final practice is not affected by the termination of the AFCP 2.0.

The Notice is available here:  https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-10-01/pdf/2024-22481.pdf

More information is available here:  https://www.uspto.gov/patents/initiatives/after-final-consideration-pilot-20