Patent term adjustment (PTA) is a process carried out by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that awards day-for-day credits to the normal patent term based on delays in prosecution at the USPTO. Any USPTO delay that occurs during prosecution of an application is offset by delays caused by applicants. The default term of a typical patent is twenty years, counted from the earliest priority date of the patent application. PTA is intended to compensate for USPTO delays in patent prosecution. Patent Term Adjustment is calculated based on the rules formed under the Patent Term Guarantee Act of 1999 and codified at 35

U.S.C. § 154(b) as a way to balance unreasonable delays caused by the USPTO and Applicants during examination of a non-provisional patent application such that, if warranted, an Applicant could gain additional patent term (i.e., effective patent term could be extended past 20 years from an application’s earliest effective filing date.) Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) under 35 U.S.C. §154(b) and Patent Term Extension (PTE) under 35 U.S.C. §156 provide for extensions on the standard patent term, which can be very valuable for products that have long development and/or regulatory approval lifecycles, such as in the case of pharmaceuticals.