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

Patenting By Ownership Location (State and Country),
Breakout By Organization and Domestic (U.S.) Inventor Share

Explanation of Data

This report, prepared from the Technology Assessment and Forecast (TAF) database, profiles utility patents (i.e., 'patents for invention') granted during the identified time period. Each displayed annual count corresponds to utility patents granted between January 1 and December 31 of the corresponding year.

Geographic Region (State and Country)

The geographic regions listed in these drill-down reports are U.S. states/territories and foreign countries and regions in which the first-named assigned owner (assignee) of a patent was located when receiving 1 or more utility patents during the period.

Geographic region is determined by the location of the first-named patent owner (assignee), as listed on the patent grant. If there is no assigned owner (assignee) identified on a patent, then the ownership location is taken as the residence of the first-named inventor. For some patents, where the specific regional location of the owner is not listed, ownership location has been placed in broader "U.S.,Unspecified Region" or "Unknown Foreign Country" regional categories.

Regional names that appear in this report do not imply any expression of opinion by USPTO about the preferred name or the legal status of any country or territory, or of its authorities.

Domestic (U.S.) Inventor Share

The domestic (U.S.) inventor share for an organization is adjusted for the number of inventors associated with each patent. Inventor shares for each patent are divided equally between all inventors of that patent.

The domestic (U.S.) inventor share, as associated with an owner in a region, is calculated as follows:

  1. for each patent, the number of listed inventors who are identified as residing in the United States at the time of grant (i.e., domestic (U.S.) resident inventors) are divided by the total number of inventors for that patent to determine the U.S. domestic inventor share for that (one) patent
  2. the domestic inventor share for each patent granted to the regional organization during a time period then is summed to obtain a total domestic patent count that represents an estimated count of domestic (U.S.) inventor patents granted to the organization during the time period
  3. finally, this domestic total patent count is divided by the total number of patents granted to the regional organization during the period to obtain the domestic (U.S.) inventor share for that period

Ownership location reflects location at the time of patent grant and does not include subsequent changes in owner location.

Since all inventors of a patent may not have equal contributions in the development of the patented invention, the displayed "Domestic (U.S.) Inventor Share" represents only a simplified estimate of the actual domestic (U.S.) inventor share. Regardless, the estimated share, as calculated, may be helpful in characterizing the inventive activity associated with a patent owner.

Listing of Organizations

Each geographic region report presents a list of organizations (national and international corporations, universities, government agencies, businesses, and other organizations) receiving 5 or more utility patents during the time period. For reports covering consolidated regions, organizations receiving 5 or more patents during the period also are presented. In each of these regional reports, organizations are listed in order of decreasing patent counts. PLEASE NOTE THAT A REGIONAL REPORT COUNTS ONLY PATENTS GRANTED TO OWNERS IDENTIFIED AS BEING LOCATED IN THE REGION. See the explanation above under the heading, "Geographic Region (State and Country)", for a description of how the geographic region of the patent owner is determined.

Some regional reports include an ownership entry labeled,

"~INDIVIDUALLY OWNED PATENT"

This entry corresponds to (1) patents for which ownership was unassigned at the time of grant (ownership is presumed to be retained by the inventor(s)) and (2) patents for which ownership was assigned to an individual at the time of grant (i.e., ownership assignment was made but assignment was not to an organization).

No attempt has been made to combine data 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 that may occur in corporate identifications.

Patent Counts, all shares (Total Utility Patent Counts)

For an owner (assignee) listed in a regional table, there is a data row that is labeled, "Patent Counts, all shares". The data displayed in this row correspond to the total annual patent counts received by the organization located in the named region. This count includes the sum of the total domestic (U.S.) inventor share and total foreign inventor share patent counts (i.e., it counts all utility patents associated with the regional organization).

Because this report was prepared at a later time than most other PTMT reports, total organizational patent counts may differ slightly from the counts displayed in other PTMT reports. These differences are due to ongoing efforts by PTMT to link the patents to harmonized assignee names and due to ongoing efforts to identify and correct inconsistencies in the TAF database that PTMT administers and that it uses to prepare the various reports..

Analyzing the Data

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 open these report files directly. Check the spreadsheet 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
P.O Box 1450
Alexandria VA 22313-1450

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

address of PTMT pages at the USPTO Web Site: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/reports.htm
selected PTMT materials available for download at : http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/data/


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