Petition to make special
In United States patent law, a petition to make special (PTMS) is a formal request submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) asking that a patent application be examined ahead of the other pending applications in the same technological art. Background and rationale Normally patent applications in a given technological art are examined in the order that they are filed in under the "first come, first served" principle. The patent office has realized, however, that some inventions deserve special attention and that patent applications covering these inventions should be examined as quickly as possible. If an invention falls into one of the special categories, the applicant (e.g. inventor) can petition to have it examined early. A petition to make special can be granted because: one of the inventors is over the age of 65 or is ill to the point where they may not be available to assist in the prosecution of the patent, the head of a government agency requests that the application be made special, the patent relates to certain areas including: quality of the environment, development of energy resources, or terrorism, the applicant wishes to take part in accelerated examination as described below, or