The chart above shows the USPTO patent grant rate across a variety of major technology areas. I apologize for the tightness of the lines, but there are several overall trends that are easy to discern. In particular, the general trend reported last week – a drop in grant rate followed by a rise once Director Kappos took charge – is present in each of the major technology areas. In general, you will also see less variance between the technology areas in later years. It is unclear at this point if that coming-together is due more to USPTO practices or to applicant practices or some other unknown factor. The major outlier in the group is electronic commerce patent applications. Those applications continue to be granted at a rate of < 10% Regarding the sources: The data primarily comes from the USPTO Chief Economist Alan Marco and his team [LINK]. For each year in the chart, I…
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