US Patent Counts, Q2 2009

The USPTO issued 48,596 patents in Q2, down slightly from 2008, and published 81,288 applications, 4.6 percent more than the same period last year. Approximately 2.1 million plant and utility patent applications have been published since 2001. The USPTO is on track to publish more than 330,000 applications in 2009, which would be the largest total on record.

Plant patent no. PP20,000 was issued on May 19, 2009 for a new and distinct type of Cuphea plant, a type of flowering shrub. The inventor is Christiaan Unger of Worms, Germany, who is credited with three other plant patents. Design patent no. 600,000 is expected in October. Only two statutory invention registrations have been registered this year, which suggests that their popularity is waning. SIRs are, for all intents and purposes, simply published applications. They may be cited as prior art but carry no patent rights.



Table 1. Quarterly Patent and PGPub Counts*

2009 ..... Patents (B) .....PGPubs (A)..... Total (A + B)
Q1 ..... 49,227 ..... 83,855 ..... 133,112
Q2 ..... 48,596 ..... 81,288 ..... 129,884

*Based on preliminary weekly data from the USPTO website. Totals may change after the fact due to withdrawn patents and published applications.

Table 2. Weekly Averages and Medians (Q2)

Patents ..... 3,738 ..... 3,764
PGPubs ..... 6,253 ..... 6,228

Table 3. Number Ranges for 2009, Jan. 1 - June 30

Utility patents ..... 7,472,428 - 7,555,787
Reissues ..... RE40,613 - RE40,817
PGPubs ..... 2009/0000001 - 2009/0183289
Designs ..... D584,026 - D595,475
Plants ...... PP19,613 - PP20,148
SIRs ..... H2,228 - H2,229

Inventor of Magic Fingers Vibrating Bed, 1916-2009

The inventor of the Magic Fingers Vibrating Bed, John Houghtaling, died last week at the age of 92. Houghtaling patented his invention in 1962 (US 3,035,572), and founded Magic Fingers, Inc. to commercialize it. His company installed millions of units in hotel and motel rooms across America in the 1960s and 70s.

Houghtaling wasn't the first inventor to conceive of a mechanical device to relieve weary or weak muscles. In 1869, Allen L. Wood of New York City, patented an "apparatus for treating diseases" (US 97,944) that consisted "of certain mechanisms, whereby circular or rotary motion... is made to perform several operations of rubbing, kneading, and giving vibratory and other action to muscles and various parts of the system." Wood's device (see below) looks more like a medieval torture rack designed to extract confessions than heal the sick.

Other similar devices are found in USPC Class 601, Surgery: Kinesitherapy, subclass 40+.

AusPat v1.3 Enhancements

IP Australia has announced the release of AusPat v1.3, the new web-based Australian patent database that replaced the PatSearch system in early 2008. AusPat v1.3 enhancements include (quoting from the release memo):

1. "e-Journal functionality has been incorporated into AusPat with the introduction of a new search field (called “Publication”) allowing users to search by Publication Action and Journal* Range.
2. The “Acceptance Published Date” search field has been removed. To search for applications by Acceptance Published Date use the new “Publication” search field.
3. Search and display of limited publication history for PATADMIN applications.
4. Ability to launch electronic Journal.*
5. Link to add AusPat to Instant Search Box for users with IE 7."

* The Australian Official Journal of Patents

The Patented Mouse That Roared

This week's Nature magazine reports that two genetic research labs, Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine and the Central Institute for Experimental Animals in Kawasaki, Japan, are involved in dispute over a patent mouse. CIEA sued Jackson in December, 2008 for infringing its patent, US 7,145,055, issued in 2006.

Jackson Lab, a non-profit, doesn't patent its discoveries, except in a few limited cases. CIEA's patent portfolio consists of just a few patents.

Patents for transgenic mice are generally classified in Class 800, Multicellular Living Organisms. Approximately 625 patents for transgenic mice and several hundred more for genetically modified cows, pigs, fishes, birds and swine have been issued since the late 1980s. The first patent, US 4,736,866, for a transgenic mouse, the so-called Harvard mouse, was issued in 1988.

Canada Rejects Amazon's One-Click Patent

The Canadian Patent Appeal Board has rejected Amazon's patent application (CA 2246933 A1) for its one-click online shopping feature, according to a report in ipFrontline. The Board's decision deals a blow against so-called business methods, which it believes are not patentable subject matter under the Canadian Patent Act.

Boliven Patent Goes Commercial

Boliven Patents is now a "professional-grade" fee-based service, according to an e-mail sent yesterday to current members of the Boliven Network. The service was launched in January as a free beta patent search engine with integrated analytical tools, search alerts and data export functions. It now includes more than 60 million patent documents from the US, Europe, Japan, Korea and others. Recently added data includes INPADOC/DOCDB data and US patent assignments.

Current members will have complimentary access for three months, after which they must pay $60 per month on a month-to-month basis. New users will be eligible for a free two-week trial period.

This isn't surprising news, given that Boliven is a private firm with a pretty obvious business plan. But I was hoping that the beta period would last longer or that part of the service would remain available to the public. This development underscores the danger of relying on third-party patent database providers to provide access to public patent information. They can disappear at any moment. Will FreePatentsOnline or Patent Lens be next?

New Website Compares Patent Search Systems

Landon IP, a private firm specializing in patent and trademark searches and patent analytics, has launched Intellogist, a free website that aims to help patent searchers locate sources of patent information, evaluate public and commercial patent search systems and exchange best practices in prior art searching. This service will be useful to both novice and experienced patent searchers. The site is supported in part by advertising.