USPTO Statistics from the 2006 Fiscal Year

The close of another fiscal year at the USPTO brings forth some interesting statistics. For instance, the number of new patent applications filed in FY 2006 rose to 443,652, up over 8% from the 409,532 applications filed in FY 2005.

Additionally, despite the USPTO hiring over 1200 new patent examiners, the number of pending patent applications increased over 13% in the past year to 1,003,884. According to the statistics, an applicant, on average, will not receive a first office action until nearly two years after their application is filed. Furthermore, the average total pendency of an application in the USPTO has risen to over two and a half years!

A future post will examine these statistics with respect to golf club and ball technology applications.