USPTO Announces Patent Allowance Rate

Recently the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office announced its final numbers for fiscal year 2006. One interesting statistic was the patent allowance rate. The patent allowance rate is the percentage of applications reviewed by patent examiners that are approved to issue as a patent. For fiscal year 2006, the allowance rate was 54%, the lowest rate on record. The rate was much lower than many had previously estimated. Some had estimated an allowance rate as high as 90%, while others estimated a rate around 70%. This allowance rate may be an indication that the USPTO is toughening its examination of patent applications. However, the allowance rate at the USPTO is not nearly as low as the rate observed in the Japan Patent Office, which consistently remained around 30% for the past few years.