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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 calendar year time period extending from January 1 to December 31 of that year.
The class breakouts available in these drill down reports are major divisions of technology in the U.S. Patent Classification System (USPCS). It should be noted that each class is further divided into smaller divisions of technology called subclasses. The USPCS currently contains approximately 470 total classes and 163,000 total subclasses. Technology classes available in these reports are classes of technology as defined by the U.S. Patent Classification System as it existed on 31 December, 2008.
Copies of each patent are placed (classified) in those 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 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.
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. Patent classification is based on each patent's PRIMARY classification as of 31 December, 2008.
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.
Reports listing organizations (national and international corporations, universities, government agencies, businesses, and other organizations) receiving 5 or more utility patents during the time period are presented. For reports covering ALL CLASSES, organizations receiving 100 or more patents during the period are presented. In each of these technology class reports, organizations are listed in order of decreasing patent counts. Annual patent counts are displayed for each year of the time period.
Patent ownership information reflects ownership at the time of patent grant and does not include subsequent changes in ownership. If more than one assignee was declared at the time of grant, patent ownership is attributed to the first-named assignee.
No attempt has been made to combine assignee names based on subsidiary relationships. However, where possible, spelling variations and variations based on name changes (e.g., ESSO to EXXON) have been merged into a single name. While every effort is made to accurately identify all organizational entities and report data by a single organizational name, achievement of a totally clean record is not expected, particularly in view of the many variations which may occur in corporate identifications.
Some regional reports include an assignee entry labelled,
"~INDIVIDUALLY OWNED PATENT"
This entry corresponds to (1) patents for which ownership was unassigned at the time of grant and (2) patents for which ownership was assigned to an individual at the time of grant (i.e., ownership assignment was not made to an organization).
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 import these report files directly. Check the spreadsheet software documentation for details.
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 22313-1450tel: (571) 272-5600
fax: (571) 273-0110
email: oeip@uspto.govaddress of PTMT pages at the USPTO Web Site: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/tafp.html
ftp download of selected PTMT reports and materials from : ftp.uspto.gov/pub/taf/
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