Patent Applications

USPTO Patent Applications-FY 2012

From the USPTO Annual Report FY 2012 “A highlight of this past year was our significant reduction in unexamined utility patent applications. We reduced our backlog to 608,283 applications from more than 750,000 applications at the start of our efforts in 2009. That is the lowest they have been in more than five years. We expect to reach our optimal inventory goal in the near future. We concurrently reduced total patent application pendency to 32.4 months, down from a peak of 34.3 months in August 2009.”

The USPTO had an increase in patent applications filed in 2012, an increase in the patents allowed, a increase in the number of First Actions for Utility, Plant and Reissue applications and an decrease in the number of applications abandoned (47% of disposals). The number of office actions per disposal remains fairly constant at about 2.5.

Provisional Patent Application Activity

Provisional Patent Applications in FY 2012 are up to 163,040, a new record high and 8.7% higher than 2011. For more information on what are Provisional Patent Applications, see Nonprovisional.com (differences between nonprovisional & provisional patent applications).

Note: Provisional Patent Applications are not examined and do not become issued patents. In order for the Provisional Patent subject matter to become an issued patent, within one year of the filing date of a provisional application, the applicant must file a nonprovisional utility application (or PCT application) which claims the benefit of the provisional application and the nonprovisional application will be examined by the USPTO. Approximately 50% of provisional patent applications go abandoned without being claimed for their priority.

Provisional Patent Applications can be used as the first step in a PCT International Patent Application. See http://nonprovisional.com/pctpatentapplication.html for more information.

FY2008

FY2009

FY2010

FY2011

FY2012

Provisional Applications Filed

143,034

134,438

140,561

150,187

163,040

FY2008-2013 USPTO Patent Examining Activity
	FY2008	FY2009	FY2010	FY2011	FY2012
Applications Filed total	496886	486499	510060	537171	565566
Utility	466258	458901	479332	504663	530915
Reissue	1080	1035	1138	1158	1212
Plant	1331	988	1013	1103	1181
Design	28217	25575	28577	30247	32258

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USPatentStatistics.com

(as reported in USPTO.gov FY 2012 Workload Tables)

(pdf of workload tables only extracted from annual report)

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