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U.S. PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
Office of Electronic Information Products
Patent Technology Monitoring Division (PTMD)

PATENTING TRENDS
CALENDAR YEAR 2003

(document dated 4-MAR-2004)

In calendar year 2003, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted a record number of patent documents including 169,028 utility, 16,574 design, 994 plant, and 421 reissue patents, and 36 statutory invention registrations for a total of 187,053 patent documents for the year. Annual grants of all patent documents increased by 1.4 percent over the total for calendar year 2002 (184,427 grants in 2002). Calendar year 2003 grants of utility patents ('patents for inventions') numbered 169,028, a 1.0 percent increase over the total for 2002 (167,333).

In 2003, the share of all patents that were issued to U.S.-resident inventors was 52.7 percent, the same percent as the U.S. share for 2002. California-resident inventors claimed a 22.4 percent share (22,079 patents) of these U.S.- resident inventor patents, followed by resident inventors from New York (7.0 percent, 6,921 patents), Texas (6.5 percent, 6,378 patents), Michigan (4.3 percent, 4,220 patents), Massachusetts (4.3 percent, 4192 patents), Illinois (4.0 percent, 3,964 patents), New Jersey (4.0 percent, 3,923 patents) and Ohio (3.9 percent, 3,894 patents). U.S.- resident inventors of the following areas had large percentage increases in patent receipts from 2002 to 2003: Wyoming, Puerto Rico, Nevada, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Washington, Florida and Massachusetts.

There were 16,895 patents granted to U.S. independent inventors in 2003, down from the 2002 count of U.S. independent inventor patents (17,495). The independent inventor share of all patents issued to U.S.-resident inventors dropped to 17.1 percent in 2003 from a 18.0 percent share in 2002.

Foreign-resident inventors claimed a 47.3 percent share of all U.S. patents issued in 2003. The share of all U.S. patents that were issued to Japan-resident inventors in calendar year 2003 was 19.9 percent, up from 19.7 percent in 2002. The 2003 share of U.S. patents that were issued to Germany-resident inventors was 6.5 percent, the same share as in 2002.

In calendar year 2003, South Korea moved ahead of France and United Kingdom into fourth position among foreign countries whose residents patented in the United States. Countries with large percentage increases in annual patent receipts for 2003 include Turkey, Brazil, Hungary, Czech Republic, India, Philippines and Ireland.

The eleven foreign countries whose residents received the most U.S. patents during calendar year 2003 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 2002 to 2003.

Notes:

Counts were revised March 4 to reflect late patent withdrawal information.
Counts include utility, design, plant, and reissue patents, and statutory invention registrations.

* 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 2002 to 2003

Notes:

Counts were revised March 4 to reflect late patent withdrawal information.
Counts include utility, design, plant, and reissue patents, and statutory invention registrations.

* 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
Office of Electronic Information Products - PTMD
PK3- Suite 441, P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, VA 22313-1450

tel: (703) 306-2600
FAX: (703) 306-2737
e-mail:oeip@uspto.gov

address of PTMD pages at the USPTO Web Site: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/tafp.html
ftp download of selected PTMD reports and materials from : ftp.uspto.gov/pub/taf/

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