Law360, New York ( March 9, 2016, 10:43 AM EST) -- The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office compensates patent applicants for delay in processing applications by issuing patent term adjustment that can lengthen the life of a patent based on finding of the existence of so-called "A" and "B" types of delay. The scope of permissible "A" delay by the USPTO was set forth in the Patent Term Guarantee Act of 1999 to "compensate patent applicants for certain reductions in patent term that are not the fault of the applicant."[1] Recently, however, in Pfizer Inc. v. Lee,[2] the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit nullified any A delay consequent to correction of patent office error if that correction was prompted by the applicant. In effect, the applicant is put "at fault" for errors made by the patent office. This holding, along with two recent decisions by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seriously limits the statutory "[g]uarantee of prompt patent and trademark office responses."[3]...