Updated Business Method Patent Statistics

Patent

On May 4, 2005, Technology Center Director John Love and his able group of e-commerce patent examiners hosted a well attended partnership meeting to discuss current and upcoming issues in the field.  The meeting is an annual event and provides an excellent opportunity to meet with the leadership on a more informal basis. I want to publicly thank the Director Love, Joe Thomas, and the entire crew for being so helpful and forthright.

In the meetings, Director Love always provides some helpful statistics. Perhaps the most telling number from the most resent event is the 11% allowance rate for FY2004 in class 705.  [Calculated as (allowed)/(allowed + abandoned)].  Although this issue was not raised at the meeting, it is clear from the numbers presented at the meeting that the backlog in the class continues to grow.  By using Director Love’s numbers on allowance, percent allowed, and new filings, I created the following table to demonstrate the continued growth in the backlog of business method cases:

Fiscal Year

Number Allowed

Percent Allowed

Disposed (Abandoned or allowed)

New Filings

Cumulative Backlog

2001

433

45%

        962

      8,700

       7,738

2002

492

26%

      1,892

      6,700

      12,546

2003

495

16%

      3,093

      6,000

      15,453

2004

283

11%

      2,572

      6,300

      19,181

Conclusion: Over the past four years, the backlog has increased dramatically.

Second Pair of Eyes: The business method group instituted a ‘second review’ of business method cases as a quality control measure.  Although still termed “second pair of eyes,” the meaning of the term has changed.  The reality is that the second review is now simply a meeting between the examiner, the primary examiner, and the SPE at which the examiner explains his reasons for allowance.  This process will hopefully payoff by helping to reduce the backlog.  Perhaps partly due to this new procedure, allowed cases for FY2005 in Class 705 are projected to shoot over 700.

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