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


U.S. COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES-
UTILITY PATENT GRANTS,
CALENDAR YEARS 1969-2008

- 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 presents 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 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 granted patents were applied for (i.e., filed), instead of by the year the grants were issued (1). These data do not represent the number of application filings; only those filings that resulted in patent grants are counted 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 250 R&D UNIVERSITIES WITH CONSOLIDATED COUNTS:

This table displays separate counts of utility patents (i.e., 'patents for inventions') for each of the top 250 academic institutions ranked according to R&D expenditures in fiscal year 2007 (2).

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 250 R&D UNIVERSITY:

Each of these tables displays counts of utility patents (i.e., 'patents for inventions') for a university ranked in the top 250 academic institutions according to R&D expenditures in fiscal year 2007 (2).

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:

(1) - 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 32 months, the data in these tables for 2000 - December 2008 are incomplete. This is because a significant number of the applications filed from 2000 - December 2008 which will ultimately become patents were still pending in December 2008. Since they had not yet become patents as of December 2008, 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 12/31/2008, utility patent data, as distributed by year of filing, are approximately 98% complete for patent applications filed in 2000, 93% complete for 2001 filings, 90% complete for 2002 filings, 78% complete for 2003 filings, 60% complete for 2004 filings, 37% complete for applications filed in 2005, and 17% complete for applications filed in 2006; data are essentially complete for applications filed prior to 2000.

(2) - Academic institutions in the top 250, based on R&D expenditures in fiscal year 2007, are derived from National Science Foundation report, Academic Research and Development Expenditures, Fiscal Year 2007, Table 29. This NSF report, based on NSF's fiscal year 2007 Survey of Research and Development Expenditures at Universities and Colleges, depicts science and engineering expenditures for separately budgeted research and development at academic institutions:

Separately budgeted R & D expenditures include all funds expended for activities that are specifically organized to produce research outcomes. These activities are either commissioned by an agency external to the institution or are separately budgeted by an organizational unit within the institution. Expenditures are funds actually spent by an institution during its fiscal year. Separately budgeted R&D equipment purchased from current funds includes all research equipment purchased under sponsored research project awards.

The names of academic institutions in the NSF report are shown in the table, 'Total R & D Expenditures at U.S. Colleges and Universities: Top 250 Institutions in R&D Expenditures in Fiscal Year 2007', 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 Francisco (U CA San Francisco), which is ranked 2nd in R&D expenditures in 2007.

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 Francisco campus. For some academic institutions in the NSF top 250, 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 250 Institutions in R&D Expenditures in Fiscal Year 2007' shows the assignee names on U.S. patents that most closely correspond to the academic institutions in the NSF top 250, 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.


PTMT Contacts

Questions regarding these reports should be directed to:

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Electronic Information Products Division - PTMT (formerly TAF Branch)
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, VA 22313

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

address of PTMT Internet pages : http://www.uspto.gov/go/taf/tafp.html
selected PTMT files available for download at : http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/data/


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