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U.S. PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
Electronic Information Products Division
Patent Technology Monitoring Team (PTMT)

PATENTING TRENDS
CALENDAR YEAR 2006

(document dated 08-FEB-2007)

In calendar year 2006, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted 173,771 utility, 20,965 design, 1149 plant, and 519 reissue patents, and 32 statutory invention registrations for a total of 196,436 patent documents for the year. Annual grants of all patent documents increased by 24.5 percent when compared to the total for calendar year 2005 (157,741 grants in 2005). Calendar year 2006 grants of utility patents ('patents for inventions') numbered 173,771, a 20.8 percent increase above the total for 2005 (143,806).

In 2006, the share of all patents that were issued to U.S.-resident inventors was 52.1 percent, a decrease from the U.S. share for 2005 (52.4%). California-resident inventors claimed a 24.5 percent share (25,043 patents) of these U.S.-resident inventor patents, followed by resident inventors from Texas (6.6 percent, 6,717 patents), New York (6.3 percent, 6,407 patents), Massachusetts (4.3 percent, 4,369 patents), Michigan (4.1 percent, 4,179 patents), Illinois (4.0 percent, 4,053 patents), New Jersey (3.5 percent, 3,629 patents) and Washington (3.5 percent, 3,620 patents). U.S.-resident inventors of the following areas had the largest percentage increases in patent receipts from 2005 to 2006: Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Oklahoma and Massachusetts.

There were 15,247 patents granted to U.S. independent inventors in 2006, up from the 2005 count of U.S. independent inventor patents (12,782). The independent inventor share of all patents issued to U.S.-resident inventors dropped to 14.9 percent in 2006 from a 15.5 percent share in 2005.

Foreign-resident inventors claimed a 47.9 percent share of all U.S. patents issued in 2006. The share of all U.S. patents that were issued to Japan-resident inventors in calendar year 2006 was 20.1 percent, down from 20.2 percent in 2005. The 2006 share of U.S. patents that were issued to Germany-resident inventors was 5.5 percent, down from 6.1 percent in 2005. For Taiwan-resident inventors, the 2006 share was 4.0 percent, up from 3.8 percent in 2005 and the share for South Korean-resident inventors jumped from 2.9 percent for 2005 to 3.3 percent for 2006. Countries with notable increases in patent receipts for 2006 include Turkey, Costa Rica, Liechtenstein, Philippines, People's Republic of China, Slovenia, and Thailand.

The ten foreign countries whose residents received the most U.S. patents during calendar year 2006 are displayed in the table below. Following the table is a detail table that lists states and countries and the percentage change in patenting by their residents from 2005 to 2006.

Notes:

* Please note that the country of origin is determined by the residence of the first-named inventor.

Annual Percentage Change in Patent Counts
By U.S. State and Country of Origin *
Calendar Year 2005 to 2006

Notes:

* Please note that the country of origin is determined by the residence of the first-named inventor.

Contact Information -

Questions regarding these reports should be directed to:

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Electronic Information Products Division - PTMT
MDW 4C18, P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, VA 22313-1450

tel: (571) 272-5600
FAX: (571) 273-0110
mailto:oeip@uspto.gov

address 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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