As expected, the USPTO has posted its first reduction in patent grants of the Kappos-Lee era. In Fiscal Year 2015, the PTO issued 296k utility patents. That is a 3% drop from the record high of 304k patents issued in FY2014. Although a modest reduction in the absolute number of patents granted, FY2015’s numbers still represent the second-highest number of patents granted in the PTO’s 200+ year history.
I still think there has to be a time of “peak patent”, even if not this century. People will be unable to invent things ever faster, so the number of patents will have to level off into a plateau or drop.
Since you were able to find the number of grants for FY2015, I imagine you can find the number of filings as well….I just can’t seem to find them myself. Would you happen to know this figure? Thanks!
Getting back to late 90’s levels would be a good target.
Is there a correlation of this graph with number of applications filed 3 or 4 years previous (or what ever the average pendency period is)?
This looks much like an increase in the invention rates in both biotech and high tech. As technology advances in great leaps, whole new areas of technology and combinations thereof make fertile ground for invention.
If this span of years – the dawn of advanced biotech and the computer/information age – shows such a trend, I would hypothesize the same increase in invention and patent grant would have accompanied the industrial revolution…
Any data on western civilization grant rates around the time of the industrial revolution?
This link has a couple of graphs showing patent trends from the beginning of the 20th century: link to aei.org
Dennis — might be interesting to know the number of claims issued per year; and how those correlate to the number of issued patents.
Did ’15 also see a drop in claims?
Is it a statistical blip? Or a genuine corner being turned?
Only time will tell …
This data seems useless without knowing how many applications were filed.
LOL. You’re right that it can’t be used to calculate a grant rate, without knowing how many applications were filed. I don’t think that makes the data “useless.”
It’s great to use as chum – witness the anti-patent “corner turning” comment from the sAmeones….
“As expected…”
?
Here is my forecast from May:
link to patentlyo.com
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