A petition to make special can be granted because:
- one of the inventors is over the age of 65 or is ill to the point where they may not be available to assist in the prosecution of the patent,
- the head of a government agency requests that the application be made special,
- the patent relates to certain areas including: quality of the environment, development of energy resources, or terrorism,
- the applicant wishes to take part in accelerated examination, or
- the applicant has received a positive indication of allowability in another jurisdiction and is participating in the Patent Prosecution Highway.