The USPTO released its annual report: USPTO Performance and Accountability fiscal year 2012 on it's strategy, operation and performance.
Here are some findings from the report:
The patent applications filed have mostly increased the last five years (FY 2008 - 496,886, FY 2009 - 486,499, FY 2010 - 509,367, FY 2011 - 537,171, and FY 2012 - 565,406).
The total backlog of over a million applications pending is basically undiminished from 2008 to 2012.
The approach of increasing the number of examiner (e.g., 7,935 examiners in FY 2012) has reduced the backlog of cases awaiting a first action from about 750,000 in FY 2008 to about 600,000 in FY 2012.
The first action pendency was 21.9 months in FY 2012, which although not "fast" looks good compared to FY 2011 - 28 months, FY 2010 - 25.7 months, FY 2009 - 25.8 months, and FY 2008 - 25.6 months.
The 12 month rolling average allowance rate is 51% in September 2012 which is higher than the same allowance rate of 44% in October 2008.
The total patent pendency FY 2012 - 32.4 months, the result of a decrease the last few years, matches FY 2008 - 32.2 months.
Copyright © 2012 Robert Moll. All rights reserved.
