U.S. PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
Information Products Division
Technology Assessment and Forecast (TAF) Branch

Explanation of Data --
Patenting By Geographic Region (State and Country)
Breakout By Technology Class
Utility Patent Grants By Calendar Year of Grant

This report, prepared from the Technology Assessment and Forecast (TAF) database, profiles utility patents (i.e., patents for inventions) 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.

The classes displayed in each report are major divisions of technology in the U.S. Patent Classification System (USPCS). Each class is further divided into smaller divisions of technology called subclasses. The USPCS currently contains approximately 460 total classes and 150,000 total subclasses. Technology classes, as displayed in these reports, are classes of technology as defined by the U.S. Patent Classification System as it existed on 31 December, 2000.

Copies of each patent are placed (classified) in those subclasses which 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 patents by PRIMARY classification will ensure that each patent is counted only once. However, if a patent teaches more than one concept, e.g., table and chair, only one concept, e.g., table, will be counted . Please note that a 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 technology classes receiving 1 or more utility patents, based on each patent's PRIMARY classification as of 31 December, 2000. For these reports, some classes have been combined together under a single class identifier. In such cases, combined classes are noted in the accompanying class titles. In addition, selected class titles have been modified to clarify technological content.

If the record for a patent is incomplete and contains no PRIMARY classification, then the patent is counted in class 001, titled CLASSIFICATION UNDETERMINED. For a more detailed description of the technologies encompassed by a U.S. Patent Classification System class of technology, 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, technology classes are listed in order of decreasing patent counts. A regional report counts only patents originating from the selected region where patent origin is determined by the residence of the first-named inventor listed on the patent grant.

Many spreadsheet software programs (e.g., Microsoft Excel) can directly import these report files. Check the spreadsheet software documentation for details.

TAF Contacts

Questions regarding these reports should be directed to:

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Information Products Division - TAF Branch
PK3- Suite 441
Washington, DC 20231

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

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

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Last modified 30 April 2001