The U.S. Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS, pronounced "T-driss") is a network of American communications satellites (each called a tracking and data relay satellite, TDRS) and ground stations used by NASA for space communications. The system was designed to replace an existing network of ground stations that had supported all of NASA's crewed flight missions. The prime design goal was to increase the time spacecraft were in communication with the ground and improve the amount of data that could be transferred. Many Tracking and Data Relay Satellites were launched in the 1980s and 1990s with the Space Shuttle and made use of the Inertial Upper Stage, a two-stage solid rocket booster developed for the shuttle. Other TDRS were launched by Atlas IIa and Atlas V rockets.The most recent generation of satellites provides ground reception rates of 6 Mbit/s in the S-band and 800 Mbit/s in the Ku- and Ka-bands. This is mainly used by the United States military.In 2022 NASA announced that it would gradually phase out the TDRS system and rely on commercial providers of communication satellite services.
Not only are Track One applications on the fast track, but data also indicates Track One applications have higher allowance rates than regular patent applications. Over the past 12 months, nearly 60% of Track One applications have been allowed, many likely without ever receiving a final rejection.
As we can see from the illustration, Track One Data has many fascinating aspects to explore.
We categorized patents in the FDAs Approved Products With Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations (known as the Orange Book) as Track One or nonTrack One and generated a dataset of all litigated biologic patents using a legal database (Lex Machina).
This particular example perfectly highlights why Track One Data is so captivating.
Does filing a Track One prioritized examination request increase the chances of getting a patent? I discussed this idea in a recent Practical Patents video, and below is a chart of the data broken down by USPTO technology center.
