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U.S. PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
Office of Electronic Information Products
Patent Technology Monitoring Division (PTMD)

U.S. GOVERNMENT PATENTS
2003

- this report has been prepared with support from the National Science Foundation -


SUMMARY TABLE
PATENTS ASSIGNED TO U.S. GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS
AS DISTRIBUTED BY
DOCUMENT TYPE AND CALENDAR YEAR OF GRANT
1977-2003 PATENT GRANTS

(patent ownership is determined by the first-named assignee listed on a patent)

Table A
Number of Patents Granted to U.S. Government Institutions
During Calendar Years 1977 to 2003,
As Distributed By Document Type and Calendar Year of Grant
Patent
Type
1977-20031990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Total
                                 
Utility 14100 983 1183 1161 1167 1258 1028 924 944 1027 984 928 957 912 882 28438
Design 11 1   1   2 3   5 2   2 1 5 2 35
Plant     1           2   1     8   12
Reissue 10   1 2 3 1 1   1   1 5 3     28
SIR/DP 525 80 87 61 64 49 51 37 22 10 14 25 24 19 7 1075
Total 14646 1064 1272 1225 1234 1310 1083 961 974 1039 1000 960 985 944 891 29588

 


SUMMARY TABLE
PATENTS ASSIGNED TO U.S. GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS
AS DISTRIBUTED BY
DOCUMENT TYPE AND CALENDAR YEAR OF APPLICATION
1977-2003 PATENT GRANTS

(patent ownership is determined by the first-named assignee listed on a patent)

Table B
Number of Patents Granted to U.S. Government Institutions
During Calendar Years 1977 to 2003,
As Distributed By Document Type and Calendar Year of Application
Patent
Type
1977-20031990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Total
                                 
Utility 16184 1180 1192 1224 1219 1089 1154 916 952 901 777 804 608 230 8 28438
Design 12 1   2 3   3 4 2   1 2 3 2   35
Plant 1           1 1 1   1 2 5     12
Reissue 11 4 1 1 3   2 3 1 1   1       28
SIR/DP 692 87 54 64 46 23 26 23 19 20 12 7 2     1075
Total 16900 1272 1247 1291 1271 1112 1186 947 975 922 791 816 618 232 8 29588

Considerations Regarding Patents As Distributed By Year of Application (Table B)

DATA FOR THOSE APPLICATIONS WHICH WERE FILED BUT NEVER ISSUED (ROUGHLY 25% OF TOTAL FILINGS) ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THIS TABLE.

Since the average time period between filing for a patent and the issuing of the patent (i.e., the patent's "pendency") is now about 24 months (for utility patents), the patent grant data, as distributed by year of application, are incomplete for the most recent years that are displayed in this table. This is because a significant number of those applications which ultimately would become patents were still pending as of these most recent years that are displayed in this table.

Patented application data are of significant value since the date an application was filed more accurately reflects when the technology was developed. Additionally, fluctuations in data based on application date are much more likely to reflect changes in technological activity since, for the most part, such fluctuations would be immune from changes in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) processing such as occurred in years such as 1986 when the USPTO issued fewer patents than would have normally been expected due to a lack of funds to print patents. Note that a patent's "pendency" can be quite variable from one patent to another, thereby affecting the date of patent grant. Such variation in pendency is determined by many factors, including PTO workload (which varies between technologies), budget and manpower levels, patent printing schedules, etc. Please note that types of patent documents such as design patents, plant patents, reissue patents, statutory invention registrations, and defensive publications may have average pendency periods that differ somewhat from the pendency period for utility patents.

In this table, utility patent grant data, as distributed by year of application are approximately 91% complete for utility patent applications filed in 1999, 75% complete for applications filed in 2000 and 49 percent complete for applications filed in 2001; data are essentially complete for utility patent applications filed prior to 1999.

 


PTMD Contacts

Questions regarding these reports should be directed to:

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Office of Electronic Information Products - Patent Technology Monitoring Division
MDW 4C18; P.O. Box 1450
Washington, DC 20231-1450

tel: (571) 272-5600
fax: (571) 273-0110
email: oeip@uspto.gov

address of PTMD Internet pages :
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/tafp.html
ftp download of selected PTMD reports from : ftp.uspto.gov/pub/taf/


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