PRODUCTS   
Products and Services > Patent Technology Monitoring Division

U.S. Patent Activity
Calendar Years 1790 to the Present

Table of Annual U.S. Patent Activity Since 1790

The following table displays annual, U.S. patent application and grant activity from 1790 to the present. Annual activity is determined based on the calendar year.
Calendar
Year
Utility
Patent
Applications (e)
(inventions)
Design
Patent
Applications
Plant
Patent
Applications
Utility
Patents (e)
(inventions)
(notes) Design
Patents
Plant
Patents
Patent Grants
to Foreign
Residents (a)
1790 n/a     3       n/a
1791 n/a     33       n/a
1792 n/a     11       n/a
1793 n/a     20       n/a
1794 n/a     22       n/a
1795 n/a     12       n/a
1796 n/a     44       n/a
1797 n/a     51       n/a
1798 n/a     28       n/a
1799 n/a     44       n/a
1800 n/a     41       n/a
1801 n/a     44       n/a
1802 n/a     65       n/a
1803 n/a     97       n/a
1804 n/a     84       n/a
1805 n/a     57       n/a
1806 n/a     63       n/a
1807 n/a     99       n/a
1808 n/a     158       n/a
1809 n/a     203       n/a
1810 n/a     223       n/a
1811 n/a     215       n/a
1812 n/a     238       n/a
1813 n/a     181       n/a
1814 n/a     210       n/a
1815 n/a     173       n/a
1816 n/a     206       n/a
1817 n/a     174       n/a
1818 n/a     222       n/a
1819 n/a     156       n/a
1820 n/a     155       n/a
1821 n/a     168       n/a
1822 n/a     200       n/a
1823 n/a     173       n/a
1824 n/a     228       n/a
1825 n/a     304       n/a
1826 n/a     323       n/a
1827 n/a     331       n/a
1828 n/a     368       n/a
1829 n/a     447       n/a
1830 n/a     544       n/a
1831 n/a     573       n/a
1832 n/a     474       n/a
1833 n/a     586       n/a
1834 n/a     630       n/a
1835 n/a     752       n/a
1836 (c) n/a     702(b) (d) (b)   8
1837 n/a     436 (b) (b)   7
1838 n/a     515 (b) (b)   17
1839 n/a     404 (b) (b)   10
1840 735     458 (b) (b)   19
1841 847     490 (b) (b)   21
1842 761     488 (b) (b)   11
1843 819     494   14   8
1844 1,045     478   12   20
1845 1,246     475   17   12
1846 1,272     566   59   19
1847 1,531     495   60   21
1848 1,628     584   46   14
1849 1,955     988   49   17
1850 2,193     884   83   20
1851 2,258     757   90   17
1852 2,639     890   109   20
1853 2,673     846   86   26
1854 3,328     1,759   57   35
1855 4,435     1,892   70   41
1856 4,960     2,315   107   31
1857 4,771     2,686   113   45
1858 5,364     3,467   102   28
1859 6,225     4,165   108   47
1860 7,653     4,363   183   49
1861 4,643     3,040   142   83
1862 5,038     3,221   195   80
1863 6,014     3,781   176   125
1864 6,932     4,638   139   181
1865 10,664     6,099   221   181
1866 15,269     8,874   294   244
1867 21,276     12,301   325   275
1868 20,420     12,544   446   337
1869 19,271     12,957   506   377
1870 19,171     12,157   737   644
1871 19,472     11,687   905   522
1872 18,246     12,200   884   581
1873 20,414     11,616   747   493
1874 21,602     12,230   886   547
1875 21,638     13,291   915   563
1876 21,425     14,172   802   787
1877 20,308     12,920   699   590
1878 20,260     12,345   590   581
1879 20,059     12,133   592   648
1880 21,761 634   12,926   515   786
1881 24,878 678   15,548   565   995
1882 30,270 948   18,135   861   1,135
1883 33,073 1,238   21,160   1,020   1,259
1884 34,192 1,230   19,122   1,150   1,284
1885 34,697 862   23,282   773   1,549
1886 35,161 645   21,768   595   1,489
1887 34,420 1,041   20,399   949   1,466
1888 34,713 971   19,552   835   1,536
1889 39,607 857   23,322   723   2,003
1890 39,884 1,046   25,308   886   2,105
1891 39,418 1,025   22,310   836   1,928
1892 39,514 1,130   22,645   817   2,051
1893 37,293 1,060   22,747   902   2,473
1894 36,987 1,357   19,833   928   2,166
1895 39,145 1,463   20,855   1,115   2,049
1896 42,077 1,828   21,825   1,445   2,027
1897 45,661 2,150   22,065   1,631   2,221
1898 33,915 1,843   20,375   1,803   2,752
1899 38,937 2,400   23,288   2,139   3,311
1900 39,673 2,225   24,656   1,758   3,483
1901 43,973 2,361   25,554   1,734   3,402
1902 48,320 1,170   27,121   640   3,499
1903 49,289 770   31,032   536   3,763
1904 51,168 818   30,259   557   3,285
1905 54,034 781   29,777   486   3,292
1906 55,471 806   31,169   625   3,471
1907 57,679 896   35,860   589   3,866
1908 60,142 1,131   32,736   757   3,338
1909 64,408 1,234   36,562   687   3,812
1910 63,293 1,155   35,130   639   3,719
1911 67,370 1,534   32,855   1,010   4,058
1912 68,969 1,850   36,196   1,342   4,489
1913 68,117 2,060   33,915   1,683   4,212
1914 67,774 2,454   39,899   1,715   4,595
1915 67,138 2,734   43,117   1,545   4,334
1916 68,075 2,684   43,892   1,759   3,767
1917 67,590 2,545   40,927   1,512   3,209
1918 57,347 2,234   38,450   1,207   2,883
1919 76,710 3,627   36,795   1,523   3,687
1920 81,915 4,660   37,057   2,485   3,762
1921 87,467 5,596   37,792   3,277   3,963
1922 83,962 4,763   38,361   1,627   4,455
1923 76,783 3,550   38,614   1,927   4,133
1924 76,987 3,635   42,572   2,671   4,723
1925 80,208 4,082   46,432   2,824   5,347
1926 81,365 4,343   44,733   2,602   5,103
1927 87,219 4,473   41,718   2,387   4,918
1928 87,603 4,761   42,326   3,188   5,218
1929 89,752 4,520   45,267   2,907   5,921
1930 89,554 4,182 16 45,226   2,712   6,085
1931 79,740 4,190 37 51,756   2,937 5 6,897
1932 67,006 4,345 46 53,458   2,944 46 7,376
1933 56,558 3,600 27 48,774   2,411 33 7,170
1934 56,643 4,399 28 44,419   2,921 32 6,489
1935 58,117 5,728 72 40,618   3,866 45 5,980
1936 62,599 6,478 66 39,783   4,556 49 5,734
1937 65,324 7,207 45 37,683   5,137 55 5,638
1938 66,874 8,084 48 38,062   5,027 41 5,776
1939 64,093 7,137 76 43,073   5,593 45 6,338
1940 60,863 8,530 91 42,237   6,145 85 6,148
1941 52,339 7,203 67 41,108   6,486 62 5,311
1942 45,549 4,218 60 38,449   3,728 65 3,943
1943 45,493 2,986 41 31,054   2,229 47 2,625
1944 54,190 5,063 42 28,053   2,916 38 2,564
1945 67,846 8,066 52 25,694   3,524 17 2,112
1946 81,056 10,698 72 21,805   2,779 56 1,656
1947 75,443 7,644 92 20,139   2,102 52 1,617
1948 68,740 7,048 59 23,961   3,968 44 1,984
1949 67,592 6,998 70 35,131   4,451 93 3,105
1950 67,264 6,739 105 43,039   4,718 90 4,408
1951 60,438 4,279 71 44,326   4,164 58 4,888
1952 64,554 4,993 84 43,616   2,959 101 5,635
1953 72,284 5,450 99 40,467   2,714 78 4,331
1954 77,185 5,465 95 33,809   2,536 101 4,433
1955 77,188 5,764 118 30,432   2,713 103 4,065
1956 74,906 4,824 104 46,816   2,977 101 6,646
1957 74,197 4,714 101 42,745   2,362 129 6,282
1958 77,495 4,923 134 48,330   2,375 130 7,395
1959 78,594 4,879 114 52,408   2,769 101 8,340
1960 79,590 4,525 131 47,169   2,543 116 7,698
1961 83,100 4,714 107 48,368   2,488 108 8,214
1962 85,029 4,897 151 55,691   2,300 91 10,112
1963 85,869 4,968 145 45,679   2,965 129 8,505
1964 87,592 5,259 120 47,375   2,686 128 8,966
1965 94,629 5,413 108 62,857   3,424 120 12,525
1966 88,525 4,853 104 68,405   3,188 114 14,008
1967 85,697 4,744 103 65,652   3,165 85 14,711
1968 93,471 5,171 95 59,103   3,352 72 13,722
1969 98,750 5,496 111 67,559   3,335 103 17,573
1970 103,175 5,996 188 64,429   3,214 52 17,872
1971 104,729 6,211 155 78,317   3,156 71 22,850
1972 99,298 5,867 135 74,810   2,901 199 23,815
1973 104,079 5,425 118 74,143   4,033 132 23,344
1974 102,538 5,318 155 76,278   4,304 261 26,514
1975 101,014 6,292 150 72,000   4,282 150 36,271
1976 102,344 7,061 175 70,226   4,564 176 27,134
1977 100,931 7,258 188 65,269   3,929 173 24,684
1978 100,916 7,538 194 66,102   3,862 186 25,711
1979 100,494 7,519 196 48,854   3,119 131 19,458
1980 104,329 7,830 220 61,819   3,949 117 25,387
1981 106,413 7,375 178 65,771   4,745 183 27,752
1982 109,625 8,174 188 57,888   4,944 173 25,528
1983 103,703 8,082 255 56,860   4,563 197 25,331
1984 111,284 8,739 253 67,200   4,938 212 30,394
1985 117,006 9,551 231 71,661   5,066 242 33,795
1986 122,433 9,912 320 70,860   5,518 224 34,780
1987 127,917 11,153 385 82,952   5,959 229 41,587
1988 139,825 11,289 377 77,924   5,679 425 39,626
1989 152,750 12,615 383 95,537   6,092 587 47,803
1990 164,558 11,288 418 90,365   8,024 318 46,094
1991 164,306 13,061 463 96,513   9,569 353 48,945
1992 173,075 13,078 354 97,444   9,269 321 48,572
1993 174,743 13,635 361 98,342   10,630 442 48,531
1994 189,857 15,774 459 101,676   11,095 499 49,224
1995 212,377 15,409 452 101,419   11,712 387 49,327
1996 195,187 15,161 665 109,645   11,410 362 52,267
1997 215,257 16,546 621 111,983   11,414 394 54,107
1998 243,062 17,107 720 147,521   14,767 561 72,399
1999 270,187 17,761 863 153,485   14,732 421 74,878
2000 295,926 18,292 797 157,495   17,413 548 78,869
2001 326,508 18,280 944 166,037   16,871 584 85,170
2002 334,445 20,904 1,144 167,333   15,451 1,133 87,095
2003 342,441 22,602 1,000 169,028   16,574 994 88,255

Notes:

n/a - data not available
(a) - "Patent Grants to Foreign Residents" data include inventions, plants, and designs
(b) - counts of patent grants from 1836 to 1842 include design patents
(c) - data for 1836 include both the patents granted in that year prior to the effective date of the 1836 Patent Law (July 4, 1836) and those granted in that year after that date
(d) - data for 1836 include 599 patents issued prior to July 4, the effective date of the 1836 patent law
(e) - "Patents", as used in this table, refers to "patents for inventions", also known as "utility" patents

Data Sources

(a) - recent statistics are obtained from the report, U.S. Patent Statistics Report, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Patent Technology Monitoring Division, and from the USPTO TAF database
(b) - many of the older statistics are obtained from the Technology Assessment and Forecast Seventh Report, March 1977, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office


PTMD Contacts

Questions regarding this report should be directed to:
(as of April 2004)

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Office of Electronic Information Products - PTMD
PK3- Suite 441; P.O Box 1450
Alexandria VA 22313

tel: (703) 306-2600
fax: (703) 306-2737
email: oeip@uspto.gov

address of PTMD pages at the USPTO Web Site: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/tafp.html
ftp download of selected PTMD reports and materials from : ftp.uspto.gov/pub/taf/


Top

Skip menu navigation Listing of PTMD Viewable Reports


KEY: search,file,e Biz=online business system fees=fees forms=formshelp=help laws and regs=laws/regulations definition=definition (glossary)

Is there a question about what the USPTO can or cannot do that you cannot find an answer for? Send questions about USPTO programs and services to the USPTO Contact Center(UCC). You can suggest USPTO webpages or material you would like featured on this section by Email to the webmaster@uspto.gov. While we cannot promise to accommodate all requests, your suggestions will be considered and may lead to other improvements on the website.

 


|.HOME | SITE INDEX| SEARCH | eBUSINESS | HELP | PRIVACY POLICY