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

U.S. COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES-
UTILITY PATENT GRANTS,
CALENDAR YEARS 1969-2000

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


BREAKOUT BY UNIVERSITY ASSIGNEE -
PATENTS DISTRIBUTED BY CALENDAR YEAR OF PATENT APPLICATION

NUMBER OF UTILITY PATENTS ASSIGNED ANNUALLY TO
U.S. COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES


Explanation of Data --

This set of drill-down tables has been prepared from the Technology Assessment and Forecast (TAF) database and displays utility patent activity (i.e., 'patents for inventions'), by assignee name (ownership), for patents having ownership assigned to U.S. colleges and universities. Counts of patents granted since 1969 are displayed in each table. Annual counts are available for each of the most recent 21 years while counts for earlier years are displayed in a single data column at the left side of each table.

For the purposes of this report and these tables, patent assignee (ownership) information is determined by the first-named assignee at the time of patent grant, as listed on the issuing patent.

Displayed patent counts in these tables are distributed by the year in which the patents were filed, instead of by the year the grants were issued *. These data do not represent the number application filings; only those filings that resulted in patent grants are presented here.

These tables are divided into three types as follows:
ALL U.S. UNIVERSITIES:
This table displays separate counts of utility patents (i.e., 'patents for inventions') for each university assignee name that has been associated with a U.S. college or university.

Please note that in this table, some universities may have more than one university assignee name associated with them.

TOP 100 R&D UNIVERSITIES:
This table displays separate counts of utility patents (i.e., 'patents for inventions') for each of the top 100 academic institutions ranked according to R&D expenditures in fiscal year 1999 **.

For each university entry, this table displays a consolidated count of patents granted to all university assignee names that have been associated with that university. In some cases, patents for as many as five or more university assignee names may have been consolidated to obtain the patent counts listed for a single university in this table.

INDIVIDUAL LISTINGS FOR EACH TOP 100 R&D UNIVERSITY:
Each of these tables displays counts of utility patents (i.e., 'patents for inventions') for a university ranked in the top 100 academic institutions according to R&D expenditures in fiscal year 1999 **.

For the university, each of these tables displays patent counts for each university assignee name that has been associated with it. A total count for all associated assignees is also provided.


Footnotes:

* - DATA FOR THOSE APPLICATIONS WHICH WERE FILED BUT NEVER ISSUED (ROUGHLY 25% OF TOTAL FILINGS) ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THESE TABLES.

Since the average time period between filing for a patent and the issuing of the patent (i.e., a patent's "pendency") is about 24 months, the data in these tables for 1997 - December 2000 are incomplete. This is because a significant number of the applications filed from 1997 - December 2000 which will ultimately become patents were still pending in December 2000. Since they had not yet become patents as of December 2000, they are not included in these tables.

Data displaying patents as distributed by their year of application are of significant value since the date an application was filed more accurately reflects when the technology was developed. Additionally, fluctuations in patent data distributed by application date are much more likely to reflect changes in technological activity, since such fluctuations would for the most part be immune to 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 normally have 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 USPTO workload (which varies between technologies), budget and manpower levels, patent printing schedules, etc.

As of 12/31/2000, utility patent application data were approximately 99% complete for patent applications filed in 1997, 61% complete for 1998 filings and 19% complete for 1999 filings. They were essentially complete for applications filed prior to 1997.

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** - Academic institutions in the top 100, based on R&D expenditures in fiscal year 1999, are derived from National Science Foundation report, Academic Research and Development Expenditures, Fiscal Year 1999 (early release tables, Table 32). This NSF report, based on NSF's fiscal year 1999 Survey of Research and Development Expenditures at Universities and Colleges, depicts science and engineering expenditures for separately budgeted research and development at academic institutions:

The term 'separately budgeted R&D expenditures' includes all funds expended for activities specifically organized to produce research outcomes and commissioned by an agency either external to the institution or separately budgeted by an organizational unit within the institution. 'Expenditures' are funds actually spent by an institution during its fiscal year.

The names of academic institutions in the NSF report are shown in a table, 'Total R&D Expenditures at U.S. Colleges and Universities: Top 100 Institutions in R&D Expenditures in Fiscal Year 1999', available elsewhere in this patent report. The NSF report provides a ranking that includes specific campuses of statewide systems, such as the University of California at San Diego (U CA San Diego), which is ranked 6th in R&D expenditures in 1999.

However, it is not always possible to identify the patents associated with a specific campus; frequently, the name of a larger institution or statewide system-not a specific campus--appears as the assignee name on a U.S. patent. For example, a patent assigned to the University of California may or may not be associated with the San Diego campus. For some academic institutions in the NSF top 100, only patent counts for larger institutions or statewide systems can be provided.

The table, 'Total R&D Expenditures at U.S. Colleges and Universities: Top 100 Institutions in R&D Expenditures in Fiscal Year 1999' shows the assignee names on U.S. patents that most closely correspond to the academic institutions in the NSF top 100, and for which patent counts are provided in this section. No attempt is made to provide total patent counts for specific campuses or research facilities, and where they do appear, those figures should not be considered the total patent count for those campuses or research facilities.


Other Information --

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

Printing the Tables
Some web browsers permit acceptable printing of these tables directly from the web page. Also, importing the web page into spreadsheet or word-processing software may allow a user additional flexibility for formatting the tables for printing. Check the corresponding 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 22 May 2002