USPTO Grants and Applications Both Down (Slightly) for FY2015

PatentGrantsPerYearI am predicting that US patent grants will fall in Fiscal Year 2015.  The chart above shows that the expected numbers through September 2015 will likely be slightly below the all-time high of 300,000+ utility patents issued in FY2014.  The expected return of 298,000 is only 2% below 2014 numbers but remains almost double the output throughout the first decade of this millennium. For each of the past five years, the USPTO has set a new record for number of patents granted.

At the most recent PPAC meeting, the USPTO also predicted a fall in utility patent application filings of about 2% for FY2015.

* The data above goes through May 26, 2015 – just about 2/3 of the way through FY2015.