Tonight I point to What is the Probability of Receiving a US Patent? which gives insight into US patent examination, including the fact different technologies and entities have different allowance rates. Worth reading if you trust in big data for strategy decisions, but at the same time a bit out of date for an article published in 2014, since it is based on applications filed in 1996 -2005.
Here is more detail taken from the author's abstract:
"We follow the prosecution histories of the 2.15 million new patent applications filed at the US Patent and Trademark Office between 1996 and 2005 to calculate patent allowance rates. 55.8% of the applications emerged as patents without using continuation procedures to spawn related applications. The success rate of applications decreased substantially from 1996 to 2005, particularly for applications in the “Drugs and Medical Instruments” and “Computers and Communications” fields. Applications filed by large firms are more likely to emerge as patents than those filed by small firms. We discuss the implications of our findings for inventors, policy makers, and social scientists who use successful patent applications as indicators of innovation."
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