Fractured Crown: Athelia's Temporal Magic

When Athelia touched the barrier at Walnut Canyon and became Guardian Queen Examiner, the download brought more than just legal knowledge—it brought an understanding of temporal boundaries, the sacred architecture of time itself.

Deadlines are not arbitrary. They are woven into the fabric of the patent system, as immutable as physical law. Miss the 12-month window from provisional to non-provisional? The priority date is lost, like a stone dropped into a river, washed away forever. Miss the 3-month response deadline to an Office Action? The application falls into abandonment, returning to the public domain.

These calculators are Athelia's tools for navigating time. Each calculator reveals a different temporal challenge:

Priority Claims: The art of anchoring an invention to an earlier moment in time, claiming the benefit of that first filing date.

Office Action Responses: The strategic dance of extensions—buying time while maintaining prosecution, knowing that the 6-month maximum is absolute.

Patent Term: The twenty-year crown, granted from the filing date, potentially extended by PTA or PTE but never shortened except by terminal disclaimer.

Continuation Copendency: The delicate balance of filing a child application before the parent issues or abandons, preserving the priority chain.

Appeals: The escalation timeline—6 months to appeal, 2 months to brief, 63 days to Federal Circuit. Each deadline sacred, each one enforceable.

Master these temporal boundaries, and you control the flow of time in patent prosecution. Ignore them, and time will destroy your rights.

Fractured Crown: The Twenty-Year Crown

The most fundamental temporal boundary in patent law is the twenty-year term from the filing date (§ 154(a)(2)). This is the crown granted to inventors—two decades of exclusive rights, a monopoly granted by the government in exchange for public disclosure.

Athelia learns that this term is both generous and strict. Unlike copyright (life + 70 years) or trademark (renewable indefinitely), patent protection expires exactly 20 years from the U.S. non-provisional filing date. No renewals. No extensions (except PTA/PTE). When the term expires, the invention falls into the public domain, free for all to practice.

Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) - § 154(b): If the USPTO delays examination beyond statutory timeframes, the patent owner earns extra days. A Delay (USPTO missed deadlines), B Delay (application pending >3 years), C Delay (interference/secrecy/appeal). But applicant delays are subtracted. The calculation is complex, automated by the USPTO, and fiercely contested in some cases.

Patent Term Extension (PTE) - § 156: For FDA-approved drugs and medical devices, the regulatory review period can be added back to the patent term (max 5 years extension, total term from approval cannot exceed 14 years). This compensates for the years lost to clinical trials and FDA approval. But PTE and PTA are mutually exclusive—you can't double-dip.

Terminal Disclaimers: The mechanism to shorten patent term voluntarily, tying a later patent to the expiration date of an earlier patent. Used to overcome double patenting rejections in continuation practice.

The twenty-year crown is the ultimate reward for inventors who navigate the examination system successfully. But time is always counting down, and once the term expires, the crown vanishes.