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U.S. PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
Patent Technology Monitoring Team (PTMT)

Design Patenting By Geographic Region (State and Country),
Breakout By Design Class

Explanation of Data

This report, prepared from the Technology Assessment and Forecast (TAF) database, profiles design patents (i.e., patents for ornamental designs) granted during the indicated time period. Each displayed annual count corresponds to patents granted during the time period extending from January 1 to December 31 of that year.

Geographic Region (State and Country)

The geographic regions in these drill down reports are U.S. states/territories and foreign countries and regions from which 1 or more design patents originated during the period. Country names that appear in this table do not imply any expression of opinion by USPTO about the preferred name or the legal status of any country or territory, or of its authorities. Design patent origin is determined by the residence of the first-named inventor listed on the design patent grant.

Listing of Design Classes

The design classes available in these drill down reports are the major divisions of designs in the U.S. Patent Classification System (USPCS). It should be noted that each class is further divided into smaller divisions of designs called subclasses. The USPCS currently contains approximately 33 total design classes and 5,600 total design subclasses. Design classes available in these reports are classes as defined by the U.S. Patent Classification System as it existed on 31 December, 2015.

Copies of each design patent are placed (classified) in those design subclasses that have been identified as pertinent to the information disclosed in the patent. One, and only one, of these subclasses is designated as the PRIMARY classification, and the remainder (if any) are designated as CROSS-REFERENCE classifications. Counting design patents by PRIMARY classification ensures that each patent is counted only once. However, when counting design patents in this way, a design patent that displays concepts contained in more than one class will only be counted in the design class corresponding to the PRIMARY CLASSIFICATION. Please note that a design patent's PRIMARY classification is also referred to as its ORIGINAL classification in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office specific terminology.

Each regional report presents a listing of USPCS design classes receiving 1 or more design patents, based on each patent's PRIMARY classification as of 31 December, 2015.

If the record for a design patent is incomplete and contains no PRIMARY classification, then the patent is counted in design class D00, titled DESIGN CLASSIFICATION UNDETERMINED. For a limited number of design patents, the PRIMARY classification has been changed from design class D00, titled DESIGN CLASSIFICATION UNDETERMINED, to another design class more indicative of the design content of the patents. These changes have been made only in cases where the design content of a patent could be associated with a design class other than class D00. For a more detailed description of the designs encompassed by a U.S. Patent Classification System design class, the Manual of U.S. Patent Classification and the U.S. Patent Classification System Classification Definitions should be consulted.

In each of these regional reports, design classes are listed in order of decreasing patent counts.

Analyzing the Data

Use of spreadsheet software may facilitate analysis of the data contained in these reports. Users should note that many spreadsheet software programs (e.g., Microsoft Excel) can open these report files directly. Check the spreadsheet software documentation for details.


PTMT Contacts

Questions regarding these reports should be directed to:

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Electronic Information Products Division - PTMT
P.O Box 1450
Alexandria VA 22313-1450

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

address of PTMT pages at the USPTO Web Site: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/reports.htm
selected PTMT materials available for download at : http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/data/


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