I 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.