USPTO Patent Grants

GrantsPerYearAlthough December has just begun, the USPTO has already issued more patents in calendar year 2014 than in any other prior year.  I expect that the total will be around 304,000 utility patents issued this year. The number of grants has more than doubled since 2005.

We can expect some further increase in 2015 – especially if Congress grants PTO full spending authority over its collected fees.

[Note – blue bar in 2014 shows the expected number of grants in the remaining four weeks of FY2014.]

 

6 thoughts on “USPTO Patent Grants

    1. 3.1

      Are you asking the question as to why the dip or are you asking the question why the dip seems to be so easily glossed over and not discussed?

      The ‘why the dip’ has been answered (the infamous Reject-Reject-Reject era that coincides not in coincidentally with the start of SAWS).

      What I wonder about is the earlier bite out of the curve, which appears to coincide with the timing of the start of the also-not-discussed appeals queue ‘blip’ (not pictured here).

      We really do seem to have a concerted government effort to not follow the law (a patentee gets a patent unless) just because the executive branch “feels” a ‘political’ backlash.

      And yes, this ties directly to the fact that propaganda – no matter how much we all might wish otherwise – works.

  1. 2

    I would be interested to see the patent grant rate (percentage) for each year overlaid on top. I’m sure that would be interesting.

    1. 2.1

      I agree – and would theorize that a slight rise above historic levels (on the order of 10% or so) can easily be explained as the adjustment to finally allowing those applications that have long been held hostage to a far greater inexplicable drop in allowance rate of 30-40%.

      Be careful of what you ask for Random, as the answer will not support your world-view.

  2. 1

    Dennis, would it be possible to break this data out by country of original filing — US vs. Not the US? Or perhaps some other measure of country of origin that gives some indication of where the inventing was done – US vs. not the US. It would be interesting to see how this has changed over the past 30 years.

    1. 1.1

      While interesting, I do not think that the data will be particularly useful.

      The patent system is a voluntary one. A shift showing trends as to which country (or which trans-national and in truth non country entities) are using the system may or may not tell us anything in particular.

      That being said, I would prefer the data to show more than just the nationality of first listed inventor, as that data may or may not be indicative of anything at all.

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