The formal notice, which includes the list of eligible technology classifications, can be found at http://www.uspto.gov/patents/law/notices/74fr64666.pdf
Pending patent applications in green technologies will be eligible to be accorded special status and given expedited examination, which will have the effect of reducing the time it takes to patent these technologies by an average of one year. Earlier patenting of these technologies enables inventors to secure funding, create businesses, and bring vital green technologies into use much sooner. Patent applications are normally taken up for examination in the order that they are filed. The average pendency time for applications in green technology areas is approximately 30 months to a first office action and 40 months to a final decision. Under the pilot program, for the first 3,000 applications related to green technologies in which a proper petition is filed, the agency will examine the applications on an accelerated basis.
New York State is second, behind only California, in the number of clean tech patents over a historical period, according to a recent report by the Pew Center.
A total of 274 new patents were filed during the second quarter of 2009 for green and alternative-energy sources, according to a new report from the Clean Energy Patent Growth Index. This marks the highest quarterly value for the tracking, up from 243 the first quarter of 2009 and 217 in the second quarter of 2008.
Read a good article on this:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2009/tc2009129_816926.htm
