Monday, February 23, 2015

Oh, patents! USPTO Numbers from the Patent Librarian

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann
Do you know how many US patent were published in 2014, or “since the beginning of (US) time” as Google is fond of including as a history parameter?

You might find all of these answers on the Dashboards of the USPTO Visual Data Center, which literally change before your eyes!

But if you want the answers to your questions already culled and organized in a short and concise report, then you might consult The Patent Librarian, who has just posted a short summary of US Patent Statistics and Numbers for 2014.

The Patent Librarian estimates that sometime near the end of March 2015 the USPTO will be issuing patent No. 9,000,000, which means the USPTO has granted that many patents since provisions for a patenting system were included in Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution in 1789 and the Patent Act of 1790, one year later.

With a staff of 10,000 at the USPTO in Alexandria, a total of 706,533 documents published in 2014, including applications and those patents granted, across all categories (utility, design and plant).

That’s a lot of inventive activity, not necessarily all happening in the US, since inventors from abroad also seek to patent their work in the US.

I am enclosing a copy of the USPTO Dashboard for Jan 2015 Backlogs, that is, all the unexamined patent applications (utility, design, plant and re-issue) waiting for action at the USPTO in Jan 2015, in the amount of 602265 applications.


References

USPTO Visual Data Center Dashboards
US constitution (archives.gov)
Patent Librarian’s Notebook
Patent Librarian's Notebook - US Patent Statistic and Numbers for 2014

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