Intellectual Property: Comparison of Patent Examination Statistics for FiscalYears 1994 and 1995

摘要

PTO defines patent pendency as the period from the data when an application isfiled until the date when a patent issued or the application is abandoned. Pendency as reported by PTO excludes applications that have been filed but not yet issued or abandoned. PTO computes average pendency as the total number of months for all patents issues or abandoned over a particular period, divided by the total number applications for that period. Patent pendency has taken on an increased importance because of 1994 legislation affecting the term of most patents. Public Law 103-465 changed the patent term for most new applications from 17 years from the date of the patent's issuance to 20 years from the filing of the original application on the intervention. Any time spent by PTO in examining a patent applications subject to the new law reduces the effective patent term left to the inventor. In comparing patent pendency in fiscal year 1995 with that experienced in fiscal year 1994, we found minor variations from what was reported in our July 1996 report. Pendency continued to vary widely among the individual examination groups in fiscal year 1995.