Repeated examiner-attorney interaction and patent approval

Can factors other than technical merit influence whether a patent application is approved and how long that approval takes? We posit that interactions between a given patent attorney-examiner pair related to former patenting procedures benefit subsequent application processes, increasing the likelihood and speed of an application being granted. Combining USPTO PatEx data with the PATSTAT database enabled us to study over 3 million applications dating from 2001 to 2014. This revealed that examiner-attorney interactions and the percentage of those leading to approval increased the probability of grant approval and reduced the length of the process. For an average patent, with a lag of 36.45 months, a one-standard deviation increase in the mean of previous examiner-attorney interaction speeds up future grant processes by around 11 days, and a one-standard deviation increase in successful interaction speeds them up by a further 65 days. We conclude that communication between examiners and attorneys enhances mutual understanding and reduces friction between applicants and granting institutions. Our findings have implications for diverse stakeholders in the patent process, including patent office examiners, patent attorneys, and companies applying for patents.