Transparency in the US Patent System

An op-ed piece in the July 14th Wall Street Journal by L. Gordon Crovitz makes an interesting case about the shortcomings of the US patent system and the recent failure of Congress to enact patent reform. One of his criticisms is the lack of transparency in the system. This may seem odd given the amount of patent information that is available in public databases. Surely the public has never had better access to the latest patent information? Well, actually...

Although the USPTO was a leader among patent offices in publishing patent data on the web in the mid-1990s, over the past decade it hasn't invested much in its core patent databases, PatFT and AppFT. PatFT contains issued patents from 1790 to the present and AppFT contains published applications from 2001 forward. Creating a separate database for published applications may have made sense from an internal bureaucratic, ah...administrative, point of view, but it's a huge disadvantage to searchers because it forces them to do double the work. Almost every type of patent search, from a patentability search to a state-of-the-art search, must include both issued patents and published applications. Other third-party public databases such as esp@cenet, FreePatentsOnline and Patent Lens, allow users to search both types of documents at the same time.

Most patent offices publish patent documents in PDF format, but the USPTO still insists on using TIFF, an obscure format that is loathed by searchers because it requires them to install a special browser plugin such as AlternaTIFF or InterTIFF. And the USPTO still does not allow printing or saving multipage documents, forcing users to go to esp@cenet, which enabled multi-page downloads in 2004, or a third-party service like Pat2PDF, in order to download complete US documents. The USPTO allows does not allow exporting patent bibliographic data, which would be very useful for creating databases or spreadsheets for analysis purposes.

One of the biggest impediments to transparency is the fact that there is no central access point on the USPTO website to patent information. Patent documents, classification, status information, ownership, and post-grant actions are scattered in at least a half dozen systems and channels. For example, the USPTO publishes notices about expired patents, corrections, reexamination filings, reissue applications in the electronic Official Gazette, a weekly periodical that was first published (in print) in 1872. Even though the print edition was discontinued in favor of the electronic in 2002, the format of these notices has not really changed in more than fifty years. Although the OG is searchable back to 1995, it would be much more convenient to make this data available in the PatFT database and allow users to create RSS or e-mail alerts for individual patents. Users who want to check on the ownership status of a patent or published application must use the Assignments on the Web database. Users who want to view the contents of a file wrapper must use the PAIR system. Neither system is connected to the PatFT or AppFT databases.

So while the public has much better access to US patent information than it did 15 years ago, it is still very difficult to find given that it is locked up in so many different silos and stovepipes on the USPTO website. The end result is a very fragmented, user-unfriendly system that effectively hides important information.

Classification Order 1878 - Class 16, Misc. Hardware and Class 52, Buildings

The USPTO has issued a new classification order, #1878, covering changes to Classes 16, Miscellaneous Hardware, and 52, Static Structures (Buildings). Static structures include all types of constructions ranging from amusement park rides and sports stadiums to wind turbines and gravestones. The principal changes in Class 52 affect subclasses related to beams, columns, girders, shafts, reinforcing bars and rods. As of July 1, there are approximately 92,500 patents and 10,600 published applications classified in Class 52.

Medical Innovators: Michael E. Debakey

Dr. Michael DeBakey, a heart surgeon who invented dozens of medical procedures, devices and instruments, died this weekend at age 99 after a extremely long and productive career. (He continued practicing medicine well into his 90s.) While in medical school in the 1930s, he devised a device called a roller pump that eventually would become a core technology in heart-lung machines. Although Dr. Debakey is recognized for many innovations, he only patented a few inventions, including a rotary blood pump in 1999. (US5947892)

Other American medical innovators include Dr. John Gibbon, inventor of the heart-lung machine (US2,702,035) and Forrest M. Bird, inventor of the first low-cost medical respirator in the world. (US3,068,856)

Patenting medical procedures and devices is controversial. Some countries, such as Canada, ban patents for medical therapies. In the 1950s, the American Medical Association lobbied to extend patent protection to medical treatments but as recently as 1995, it condemned doctors who sought to patent certain medical procedures.

Researchers See Patent Quality in Rising Citation Counts

Joff Wild, a journalist and blogger for Intellectual Asset Management Magazine, makes some interesting observations about a new study that claims that the quality of patents issued by the USPTO is rising. The research found, among other things, significant growth in prior art citations in issued patents over the last five years: 41 percent more US patent docs, 36 percent more foreign patent docs and 23 percent more non-patent literature. Wild points out that this research contradicts claims that US patent examiners frequently miss relevant prior art and issue low-quality patents. The research was published in the June issue of Les Nouvelles, the official publication of the Licensing Executives Society (LES).

U.S. Patent Counts, Q2 2008

The USPTO published 77,691 patent applications (A docs) in Q2, a six percent increase over the same quarter last year and the second straight quarter over 77,000, but a slight decline from the Q1 2008. The USPTO is on track to publish over 310,000 applications this year. Approximately 1.8 million plant and utilty patent applications have been published since 2001.

The number of issued patents (B docs) rebounded from 43,657 in Q1 to 49,353 in Q2, a dramatic 13 percent jump and a six percent increase over the previous year. Curiously, the number of issued patents remained flat for most of Q2.

Table 1. Quaterly Patent and PGPub Counts*

Qn ..... Patents .....PGPubs ..... Total
Q1 ..... 43,657 ..... 77,962 ..... 121,619
Q1 ..... 49,353 ..... 77,691 ..... 127,044

*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 ..... 3,796 ..... 3,841
PGPubs ..... 5,976 ..... 6,231

Table 3. Number Ranges for 2008 (Totals)

Patents ..... 7,313,829 - 7,392,547 (78,309)
Reissues ..... RE39,964 - RE40,405 (441)
PGPubs ..... 2008/0000001 - 2008/0155725 (155,725)
Designs ..... D558,426 - D571,975 (13,530)
Plants ..... PP18,373 - PP18,990 (618)
SIRs ..... H2,208 - H2,218 (11)

When I teach people how to conduct a proper search of the patent literature, I always find it challenging to convince them that they need to include older patents in their searches. Most people, especially undergraduate students, are content to do keyword searches that will retrieve only patents from the mid-1970s forward. They seem to believe that older patents couldn't possibly be relevant to whatever technology they're interested in. Of course, this is not the case: there are many technologies that can trace their origins back to the mid-19th century (or even earlier).

I decided recently that I needed some hard data to back up my arguments, so I looked at the cited references in recently issued patents in selected USPC classes and subclasses. References are cited by applicants and patent examiners based on their relevance to the patented invention. Of course, this includes patents back to 1790. For this exercise I chose bicycles (280/2*), stirling engines (60/517), wind turbines (Class 416), fuel cells (Class 429), hydrocarbons (Class 580) and surgical instruments (Class 606). I retrieved the 20 most recent patents in each class/subclass and compiled the references to US patents in a spreadsheet. The results were very interesting.

In four of the five classes/subclasses, the total number of references ranged from 247 to 297; the median number of references ranged from 6 in fuel cells (Class 429) to 11.5 in wind turbines (Class 416). Surgical instruments (Class 606) had 1110 references, almost four times the average in the other four categories, with a median of 45 references per patent. The earliest references ranged from 1867 in surgical instruments to 1966 in fuel cells. Fuel cells had the fewest pre-1976 references (1 or 0.44 percent). But approximately 10 percent of the references in stirling engines, hydrocarbons and bicycles were earlier than 1976. Surgical instruments had 5 percent and wind turbines had 7 percent.

This data illustrates the importance of pre-1976 patents in the technological record and makes a strong argument for searching by patent classification. With the exception of fuel cells, all categories had a substantial number of references prior to 1976 which would not be retrieved by keyword searches.

Pringles Aren't Potato Chips

A UK judge has decided that Pringles aren't potato chips, which could save Procter & Gamble millions in taxes every year. The judge based his decision in part on the fact that the chip-like snack is only 42 percent potato. The UK doesn't apply sales tax to most foods, but potato chips and other snack-like products are taxed.

Pringles were invented more than forty years ago by Alexander Liepa, a food scientist at Cincinnati-based P&G. Liepa received a patent (3396036) on August 6, 1968 for a "potato food product" made from a dough consisting of 21-46 percent potato solids, 1-15 percent milk solids and 53-73 percent water. He later patented additional improvements to the formula (3998975) and the design of a machine for molding the dough into the product's trademark concave shape (3608474). (Also see trademark application 75207172.)

Happy 40th birthday, Pringles!

Happy Independence Day!

A few patriotic patents for your enjoyment on the 4th of July. The first is a jack-in-the-box featuring a rather creepy-looking Uncle Sam (US978489); next are matching picture frames with Lady Liberty and Uncle Sam--a perfect gift for queen and king who have everything! (US1283100); the third is a bottle shaped like Uncle Sam holding what appears to be a rifle--for taking shots at squirrels and evil doers?! (USD29331); and, finally, two flags inspired by the design of the US flag. It's surprising how many patent flag designs there are based on Old Glory. See USPC D11/167 and D11/168.

Peer to Patent Review Program Update

The USPTO has announced the results of its year-long patent review pilot program called Peer to Patent. The purpose of the program, which was launched in June 2007, was to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of an online-based system where registered experts could submit prior art related to pending patent applications. The pilot program was limited to 250 applications in the computer technologies. According to the USPTO, the program recruited 2,000 experts who submitted 173 pieces of prior art related to 40 applications. Patent examiners used the prior art to reject 12 applications, about five percent of the applications in the system.

It's interesting to note that the USPTO's current backlog of unexamined applications is about 750,000. Given the size of the backlog and the record-breaking levels of new filings (467,000 in 2007), it's difficult if not impossible to imagine how Peer to Patent might have any significant impact on the examination process or patent pendency.

In the 1970s the USPTO launched a similar program (but without the technology) called the Trial Voluntary Protest Program. Under TVPP, the public was invited to submit prior art on two thousand selected applications. Only a handful of prior art submissions were received and only a few applications rejected. The USPTO concluded that the program was ineffective and decided not to pursue it.

Happy Canada Day!

In honour of Canada Day, here are a few Canadian industrial designs that are based on the maple leaf, the national symbol of Canada. All were retrieved from the CIPO's industrial design database, which includes designs registered from1861 to the present. Unfortunately, CIPO doesn't classify designs by shape, so the only way to retrieve specific designs is by keyword searching in the title or description field. The designs include a sun visor (71471), sunglasses (24929), poncho (106525), pin (100394) and glove (109475).

New Book: Mr. Gatling's Terrible Marvel

This is library conference season, so I've been racking up frequently flyer miles by the thousands. Air travel isn't as fun for me as it was pre 9/11, but spending hours in the air does give me an opportunity to catch up on my reading. On my most recent flight I finished Mr. Gatling's Terrible Marvel: The Gun that Changed Everything and the Misunderstood Genius who Invented It by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Julia Keller. The book is a biography of Dr. Richard Jordan Gatling and his most famous invention, the Gatling Gun, the first practical machine gun. (See the Economist review, "A Little Gatling Music.")

Strangely enough, Gatling claimed to have invented his machine gun in order to mitigate the pain and suffering caused by war. His reasoning, so he claimed, was that a rapid-firing weapon would require much fewer soldiers, thus reducing the size of armies and the number of battlefield casualties. Keller does a good job of capturing the essence of life in 19th century America, with all its energy, contradictions, noise and (even) odors. Central to her story is the idea that the U.S. patent system made it possible for amateurs like Gatling to drive economic development and social change farther and faster than ever before.

The book contains several factual errors and omissions. For example, Keller states that Samuel Hopkins, the first American inventor to be granted a patent under the new federal patent law in 1790, was from Pittsfield, Vermont. In fact, Hopkins was born in Maryland to Quaker parents and was a resident of Philadelphia for most of his life. (Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office, March 1998) And Although Keller mentions Gatling's many other patented inventions (his first successful invention was a seed planter patented in 1844), she provides the patent numbers for only a few: Nos. 3,581, 36,836 and 47,631). According to a Wikipedia article, Gatling's lifetime total was nearly 50 patents. It's interesting to note that searching Gatling's name in Google Patents retrieves only 12 patents.

New Patent PDF Download Tool

Patent Retriever is a new service for downloading patent documents. Launched just days ago (May 30), it will retrieve US, EP and WO (PCT) patent documents in PDF format fairly quickly, although I haven't timed it against other similar services. Users may download single documents or up to ten documents in batch download mode. It appears to retrieve some US documents from the EPO's esp@cenet database and some from the USPTO website. However, it does not appear to retrieve pre-1836 patents (X patents) or additional improvement patents.

Helvetica

Last night I watched a very interesting documentary by Gary Hustwit called Helvetica. It was a fascinating conversation with graphic designers about the font Helvetica, typography and graphic design. Helvetica was created in 1957 by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas type foundry in Munchenstein, Switzerland and within a decade became the world's most successful and well-known font.

The story reminded me that the first U.S. design patent, issued in November 1842, was for a type font. Unfortunately, the surviving copy is a handwritten document that does not include drawings of the font. (See D1.)

The inventor (or designer) was George Bruce, a Scottish immigrant and owner of a type foundry in New York. Bruce was one of the most successful type designers in the 19th century. His inventions included numerous fonts and improvements to type-casting machines.

Since 1842 there have been thousands of design patents for fonts. Fonts are classified in the USPC under Class D18, Printing and Office Machinery, subclasses D18/24-D18/33. It's interesting to note that Bruce's first patented font is still being cited in recent design patents.

Classification Order 1877 - Class 606, Surgery

The USPTO has recently published Classification Order #1877 affecting subclasses in Class 606, Surgery. Class 606 is part of a mega-class composed of Classes 128, 600, 601, 602, 604, 606, 607. Class 606 covers surgical instruments. This is the third classification order issued this year. As of June 1, 2008, approximately 38,000 patents (1790-present) and 21,000 published applications (2001-present) are classified in Class 606.

New Patent PDF Download Tool

IP Newsflash (IPN), an information portal for IP news, official notices and case law, has added a patent document download to its suite of patent information tools. Users can retrieve a PDF copy of any patent document in the EPO's Open Patent Services (OPS) database by entering a patent or publication number. Other tools include a patent family search (with data export in XLS, DOC and XML formats), prior art search and register of EPO Board of Appeals decisions. IPN also tracks recently granted EP patents and published applications up to six months old through its EP Monitor service. Users can view graphs and lists of top applicants by IPC.

IPN is one of my favorite sites for tracking IP news. Its suite of information tools is an excellent compliment to official patent office websites.

Early U.S. Patents Recovered

The USPTO has recently added to its patent database approximately 500 patents issued from 1790-1836 that were lost for 175 years. These documents were among the approximately 10,000 patents destroyed when the Patent Office, which was located in Blodgett's Hotel in downtown DC, burned down on the night of December 15, 1836. Shortly after the fire, Congress appropriated money to restore the Patent Office files and copies of about 2,500 patents were eventually obtained from inventors.

Apparently, USPTO staff retrieved these 500 patents from circa 1970s microfilm located in the Public Search Facility, but the location of the original documents is unknown. Lost patents do turn up from time to time. In 2004, two patent attorneys discovered 14 missing patents in the library at Dartmouth College.

New Series Codes for Utility/Plant and Provisional Applications

According to the USPTO website, there are new series codes for utility/plant and provisional application serial numbers. The new codes are "12" for utility/plant applications and "61" for provisional applications. The first applications of 2008 were 12/5,841 and 61/9,389, so the new series must have been implemented in December 2007.

In a related development, the USPTO has implemented a new electronic filing system for reexamination proceedings. Reexamination request filed electronically are assigned control numbers starting at 10,000 for inter partes and 1,000 for ex parte requests. Paper filings will continue to receive numbers in the normal sequence. The series codes for ex parte and inter partes reexaminations are 90 and 95, respectively.

Father of Modern Denistry - G. V. Black

Whenever I go to the dentist, I'm amazed at the number of specialty instruments and gadgets used to clean and repair teeth. Many of these are patented. According to the USPTO website, 19,194 patents issued since 1790 are classified in Class 433, Dentistry, in addition to 3,742 published applications. (This doesn't include tooth brushes, which are classified in Class 15.)

Related to this is an interesting story in the New York Times about Greene Vardiman Black, the father of modern dentistry. According to the story, in the late 19th century Black pretty much single-handedly transformed dentistry into a modern profession. In the process, he invented dozens of new dental instruments and materials. The story also claims he had little interest in patenting his inventions, which the patent record appears to confirm. A quick search in Google Patents reveals only two patents issued to Black on August 8, 1871, an improvement in dental drills (US117733) and an improvement in universal joints (US117732). He also received a reissue patent for his dental drill (USRE7452) on Jan. 2, 1877.

May the IP Force Be With You

According to press reports, George Lucas and his company Lucasfilm are suing Andrew Ainsworth, a London-based prop designer, for copyright infringement for selling replica Star Wars stormtrooper armor. Ainsworth, who produced costumes for the first Star Wars movie in 1976, is disputing the copyright. Lucas claims that he and Ralph McQuarrie, a designer who worked on all three films in the first trilogy, completed the stormtrooper design before turning it over to Ainsworth for production.

In the early 1980s, Lucas, McQuarrie and Joe Johnston patented several designs for toy action figures based on characters in the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the second and third Star Wars film. These include:

D264,109 - Bobba Fett
D265,332 - Snowtrooper
D265,754 - Yoda
D268,942 - Imperial probe droid
D277,215 - Ewok

Advice for High-Tech Independent Inventors

As a patent librarian, it's easy to become too comfortable with the stereotype of the independent inventor as someone who tinkers with simple inventions, such as toys and garden tools. After all, many people who seek our help are students and first-time inventors with little technical training, not neurosurgeons and electrical engineers. But maybe we should be more aggressive in marketing our services to the latter.

A recent article (see below) by Bruce Reiner offers a different perspective from the point of view of an independent inventor working in the high-tech field of medical imaging and informatics. Reiner offers some interesting statistics on the number of working independent inventors and observations on the weaknesses of industry-sponsored R&D. He also argues that the strategy of "outsourcing innovation" will create new opportunities for technically savvy independent inventors. Reiner offers good practical advice to high-tech independent inventors, but he discourages them from doing their own preliminary prior art searches, although he does list "conducting a review of the current technology" as the second step in the innovation process. This is a curious bit of advice given that their technical training and experience would be a big advantage in using free online patent databases. Unfortunately, Reiner fails to identify librarians and libraries in his list of resources for the independent inventor.

Reiner, B. I. Intellectual property in medical imaging and informatics
Journal of Digital Imaging, vol. 21, no. 1 (March), 2008: pp. 3-8. (Available on SpringerLink.)

Esp@cenet Improvements in 2008

The latest edition (1/2008) of Patent Information News, the European Patent Office's quarterly newsletter on patent information, documentation and searching, is now available.

Page 10 includes a list of esp@cenet improvements planned for 2008. They are:

1. Increase in the number of documents that can be stored in the "My Patents" list.
2. Relaxation in the page limit for PDF documents downloaded from esp@cenet.
3. Full-text searches for patent documents in English, French, and German.
4. Single search field accepting multiple search criteria.
5. Highlighting of search terms.
6. Exportable hit lists.
7. Date range searches.

All of these will be appreciated by patent searchers, but especially the ability to create sophisticated searches in a single search field, export lists and conduct date range searches. The current limit on the size of a document (about 50 pages) that can be downloaded is annoying at times, but since most patents have fewer than 50 pages it doesn't come up often. (At least not in my experience.) For US and WO patents, searchers can use alternate sites such as Patent Lens, pat2pdf and PatentScope to download lengthy patents.

Edison Wasn't the First

On the original Star Trek series, one of the running jokes was ensign Chekov's tendency to claim that this or that technology was "invented in Russia". Well, he may not have been right but the popular notion that the most celebrated inventions of the 19th century were the products of lone (American) inventors is definitely wrong.

The legend of Thomas Edison shines a little dimmer, thanks to researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who have played a 10-second recording of a woman singing made in 1860--17 years before Edison received a patent for the phonograph. The recording was made by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, a Parisian typesetter and inventor, on a device known as a phonautogram, which captured sounds and recorded them on paper.

The second article discusses why some inventors become legends and others fade into obscurity. As it turns out, many of the inventions, such as the telephone, radio and light bulb, that are attributed to single inventors were actually developed independently by several individuals.

1. Researchers play tune recorded before Edison, March 27, 2008
2. Edison... Wasn't he the guy who invented everything?, March 30, 2008

Guitar Hero Hits Sour Note

Last week Nashville-based Gibson Guitar filed a patent infringement lawsuit against MTV Networks, Harmonix and Electronic Arts, makers of the popular Guitar Hero video games. Gibson claims that Guitar Hero violates a 1999 patent for a similar technology. The patent in question appears to be No. 5,990,405, System and Method for Generating and Controlling a Simulated Musical Concert Experience, issued on November 23, 1999. The inventors listed on the patent are Don R. Auten of Nashville, Richard T. Akers of Antioch, Tenn. and Richard Gembar of Mt. Juliet, Tenn. According to press reports, sales of Guitar Hero have earned more than $1 billion since its release in 2005. Since 1976 Gibson Guitar has received about 90 patents, roughtly 40 percent design and 60 percent utility.

Gibson was founded in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1902 by Orville H. Gibson. It was originalyl called the Gibson Mandolin Guitar Mfg. Co. Gibson was issued at least one patent for a mandolin, No. 598,245, in 1898. He was hospitalized several times for mental illness and died in a psychaitric hospital in upstate New York in 1918.

WHAM-O's 60th Anniversary Kid Inventor Contest

The new issue of WIPO Magazine has several interesting articles, including one on the 60th anniversary of the WHAM-O toy company. Wham-O is best known for introducing the hula hoop to America in 1958, followed by Frisbee flying discs, Slip 'n' Slide and Superball. In celebration of its 60th birthday, WHAM-O is sponsoring a kid inventor contest. The winning inventor will receive $2000 and WHAM-O may choose to produce their toy. The deadline is March 31, 2008.

Some of WHAM-O's recent patents include a shark-shaped water slide (D562,929); children's waterboard with squirting device (7,264,522) ; and a children's playground slide (D540,413).

Patenting the Atomic Bomb

Many thanks to Danianne Mizzy of the University of Pennsylvania for sharing this NPR story on the role of patents in the development of the atomic bomb in the 1940s.

Many of the scientists (and their universities) involved in the Manahattan Project, including Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard, Ernest O. Lawrence and John Von Neumann, were keen to obtain patents for their work because they believed that atomic energy would become a lucrative commericial opportunity. Some scientists predicted that atomic energy would be used for hundreds of applications ranging from generating electricity and powering ships and airplanes, to massive demolition charges for mining and construction.

The U.S. government, concerned that atomic technology would fall into the wrong hands, quickly took steps to block these aspirations. In 1946 Congress enacted legislation prohibiting the patenting of atomic weapons. Shortly thereafter it passed invention secrecy laws that required the Patent Office to issue secrecy orders on all applications for sensitive technology, atomic or otherwise, that could impact national security. These applications are kept secret until the government decides that the information they contain no longer poses a danger.

One of the patents (#6,761,862) profiled in the NPR story was issued sixty years after it was filed. Two of the longest pending applications were issued in 2000 (patent #s 6,097,812 and 6,130,946) to William Friedman. Friedman was a cryptographer who worked for the Army and National Security Administration from the 1920s to the 1950s. In the early 1930s he filed patent applications for electro-mechanical cipher machines for encoding and decoding secret messages.

According to the Federation of American Scientists, there are currently 5,002 secrecy orders in effect. In FY 2007 the USPTO imposed 128 new orders and rescinded 68. According to the USPTO, more than 3,000 of these secret cases have been approved for allowance.

U.S. Patent Counts, Q1 2008

The USPTO published a record-breaking 77,962 patent applications (A docs) in Q1, an 11 percent increase over the same quarter last year. This was a strong rebound from the 73,450 A docs published in Q4 2007. Approximately 1.7 million plant and utilty patent applications have been published since 2001.

The USPTO's new emphasis on quality over quantity appears to be working. Issued patents (utility, plant, design and reissue) declined 8 percent from last year, dropping to 43,657, the lowest count in more than two years. The number of statutory invention registrations (SIRs) also continued to decline; only four were registered in Q1. SIRs are a form of defensive publication that was established in 1985. Their purpose was diminished somewhat when the USPTO began publishing applications in March 2001.

There's still no sign that the USPTO has implemented series code 12 for incoming patent applications. The most recent A docs filed in early December 2007 have serial numbers in the 950,000s, suggesting that the current series has enough numbers to last through the end of the year. It's possible that the USPTO may start the new series on January 1, which was the practice for many decades. The 10th series began on October 24, 2001 and the 11th series on December 1, 2004.

Table 1. Quaterly Patent and PGPub Counts*

Qn ..... Patents .....PGPubs ..... Total
Q1 ..... 43,657 ..... 77,962 ..... 121,619

*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 (Q1)

Patents ..... 3,406 ..... 3,755
PGPubs ..... 5,997 ..... 5,965

Table 3. Number Ranges for 2008 (Counts)

Patents ..... 7,313,829 - 7,350,238 (36,260)
Reissues ..... RE39,964 - RE40,189 (226)
PGPubs ..... 2008/0000001 - 2007/0078005 (77,962)
Designs ..... D558,426 - D565,275 (6,843)
Plants ..... PP18,373 - PP18,671 (299)
SIRs ..... H2,208 - H2,211 (4)

Paris Convention and Public Access to Patents

This year is the 125th anniversary of signing of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, one of the cornerstones of the modern international industrial property system. The treaty was signed in Paris by representatives of 11 countries on March 20, 1883. Today, there are 172 member countries.

The convention introduced many important principals to international intellectual property law. First and foremost, it required members to apply the same level of protection to nationals of other member countries as their own citizens. It also established the right of priority, a grace period for the payment of maintenance fees, and the right of the inventor to be mentioned in a patent. Less well know is its impact on the dissemination of patent information.

Article 12, which has the rather ambiguous title "Special National Industrial Property Services" requires member states to make intellectual property information available to the public. Specifically, the text of the Article states:

(1) Each country of the Union undertakes to establish a special industrial property service and a central office for the communication to the public of patents, utility models, industrial designs, and trademarks.

(2) This service shall publish an official periodical journal. It shall publish regularly:
(a) the names of the proprietors of patents granted, with a brief designation of the inventions patented;
(b) the reproductions of registered trademarks.

It's easy today to take for granted free and reliable access to patent information. Would it have been so if the framers of the Paris Convention had not valued the importance of information dissemination? Would the public enjoy the level of access to patent, trademark and design information it has today? Probably not.

Review: Japanese-English Chemical Dictionary

Japanese-English Chemical Dictionary: Including a Guide to Japanese Patents and Scientific Literature. Edited by Markus Gewehr. Wiley-VCH, 2007. 680 p. $230 ISBN 978-3527312931

My library just received a copy of this very impressive reference work. The bulk of the book consists of a dictionary of more than 60,000 Japanese scientific and technical terms. I don't read Japanese, but it appears very comprehensive and useful to anyone attempting to read Japanese patents and journal articles. The first part of the book consists of a half dozen chapters. Chapter 1 is an overview of the Japanese language. Chapter 2 describes the characteristics of Japanese scientific and technical publications. Chapter 3 covers naming chemical compounds. Chapters 4 and 5 focus on Japanese patent documentation and patent law. For me, these were the most interesting and useful sections. Chapter 4, Patent Documentation, was written by the editor, Markus Gewehr, and Irene Schellner of the Japanese Patent Information unit in the European Patent Office. This chapter has a tremendous amount of detailed information about the history and evolution of Japanese patent documents, search systems and numbering systems. Numerous tables provide details about kind codes, INID codes, headlines, etc. There's also a good overview of the Japanese special classification systems known as the File Index (FI) and File Forming Terms (F-terms).

USPTO Class Order 1876 - Class 73: Measuring and Testing

The USPTO has published Classification Order #1876 affecting Class 73, Measuring and Testing. This is the generic class for processes and apparatus for making measurements or tests of any kind. New mainline headings in the class include:

112.01 Turbine engine
113.01 Steam or water operated engine; related engine system or engine component
114.01 Internal combustion engine or related engine system or engine component
115.01 Vehicle drive train
116.01 Test stand
117.01 Vehicle chassis
118.01 Simulating operating condition

Spark-IP: Patent Search Tool

High-quality patent databases are so commonplace on the web these days it's hard to get excited about yet another offering. Sure... there's always room for improvement, but how many patent databases does the world really need? Apparently, it does.

Spark-IP was launched last October as an "eBay" for intellectual property owners to advertise their inventions and technologies available for licensing. The beta site is currently freely available for anyone to use, but some services and advanced functions will eventually be priced. The site is open to listings from universities, corporations and government agencies, but soon anyone will be able to post a technology for a fee.

At the heart of Spark-IP is a searchable database containing four million U.S. patents and published applications. This data is augmented by technology listings submitted by registered users. Users can search by keyword in title, abstract, full text, or claims; inventor, assignee and patent number.

What's interesting about Spark*IP is that it presents search results as technology landscape maps called SparkClusters. These maps are constructed by algorithms that group related patents and technology listings into discrete groups. There are about 40,000 Sparkclusters now, but this will change as new technologies emerge and evolve. Another type of map is the SparkCluster Neighborhoods, which display the total population of a landscape cluster, rather than just the technology retrieved in by a keyword search.













Figure 1. A SparkCluster map for OLED technology. The darker the colour of the cluster, the greater its cumulative keyword strength. Green halos around a cluster indicates indicate the presence of one or more technology listings.

Tupperware Patents

The U.S. economy may be sputtering, consumer confidence is tanking, and food and energy prices are at all-time highs. But there's one company that sees a silver lining in all this gloomy news. Tupperware, the 62-year old company famous for its plastic food storage products, knows that when times are bad, it's sales go up. People still have to eat, after all, and they need a safe way to store their leftovers.

Earl S. Tupper (1907-1983), the company's founder and namesake, had patented several small inventions (comb case, shoe heel) before he found success in plastic containers. On October 5, 1946 he filed four design patent applications for a sugar bowl (D156855), pitcher (D154348) and pitcher covers (D158155 and D156854), which were issued between 1949-1950. A year later, a paint can lid inspired him to design an air-tight container for food. In 1954, Tupper received his first patent for container specifically designed for food (2695645).

Tupperware has received thousands of patents (mostly design patents) on food storage, preparation and serving products. In 1969, Tupperware was sold to Rexall Drugs, which later became Dart Industries. All Tupperware patents since the early 1970s have been assigned to Dart. Both Tupperware and Dart are now based in Orlando, Florida.

In Search of the Perfect Battery

The Economist has published an excellent article on the history of automotive battery technology. It notes that electric cars were common in the first decade of the 20th century until the invention of the electric starter in 1912 made internal combustion engines, which provided better range and power, the dominant technology.

In August 2005, the USPTO established a new cross-reference class for hybrid electric vehicles (Class 903). There are now some 1,579 patents and 1,127 published applications classified under Class 903. Cross-reference classes are intended to provide supplemental information and are never assigned as primary classifications.

A number of famous inventors tried their hand at perfecting electric automobiles. One of the earliest patents (No. 594,805) for an electric car was issued in 1897 to Hiram Maxim, inventor of the Maxim machine-gun. Thomas Edison also attempted to develop (with limited success) improved batteries for the automotive industry.

New Classification Order - Class PLT

The USPTO has issued a new classification order (#1875) affecting Class PLT (Plants). The order establishes about 100 new subclasses under a new main heading called "Herbaceous Ornamental Flowering Plant (Nicotina, Masturtium, etc.)".

PCT Filings Set New Record in 2007

2007 was another record-breaking year for international patent application filings, according to a recent press release by the World Intellectual Propety Organization. A total of 156,100 applications were filed last year, a 4.7 percent increase from the year before. The country with the most filings was the U.S., which accounted for 33.5 percent of new filings, followed by Japan with 17.8 percent and Germany with 11.6 percent. The Republic of Korea (#4) and China (#7) had the largest increases among the top ten countries. Canada (#12) accounted for 1.9 percent.

USPTO Patent Manual Archive

The USPTO has made available all editions and revisions of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) back to 1948. The original (un-numbered) edition of 1948, the Manual of Patent Office Procedure, included extensive material previously published by the Patent Office Society. The 1st edition followed in 1949. The 8th edition was published in 2001 and has been revised five times, mostly recently in August 2006. This collection is a great resource for practicing patent attorneys, patent law scholars and patent searchers in need of historical information. The MPEP is the responsibility of the Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy.

2008 Inductees to National Inventors Hall of Fame

The USPTO and National Inventors Hall of Fame (Akron, Ohio) have announced the 2008 inductees into the NIHF. The seven living inventors inducted are:

• Ruth Benerito for wrinkle-free cotton (55+ patents)
  
• Amar Bose for improvements in audio technology (30 patents)
• Nick Holonyak, Jr. for the light emitting diode (2 patents)
  
• Erna Hoover for computerized telephone switching (1 patent)
• Amos Joel, Jr. for the switching concept for cellular phones (70+ patents)
• William Murphy, Jr. for a variety of medical devices including the blood bag and disposable medical trays (40+ patents)
• Kenneth Richardson for the anti-fungal drug, Fluconazole (40+ patents)

The inductees will be honoured in an official ceremony on May 3.

Google Patents Update

Google Patents now includes US published applications and patents through at least the end of 2007. Google engineers have added a filter to the advanced search form that allows you to retrieve only issued patents or applications. However, there are still numerous problems with the search engine. For example, it is not possible to retrieve published applications by number. And classification searching is very problematic. A search on USPC 903/906 retrieved only 5 hits in Google but 417 hits in the USPTO databases. A search for inventor name "Mihal Lazaridis" retrieved 62 patents (with the "issued patents" filter on) and 81 published applications (with the "applications" filter on) for a total of 143 documents; the same search with not filter retrieved only 137 documents.

Manual of Patent Examining Procedure Online

The USPTO has made available scanned copies of all editions and revisions of the Manual of Patenting Examining Procedure (MPEP) from 1948 forward. Previously, only the most recent editions were available online. This collection will be useful for locating historical information on US patent documentation, numbering systems, classification and prior art rules.

PatentMonkey Update

The patent search portal PatentMonkey.com, which I reviewed last February, has been acquired by Patents.com, a new firm headed by venture capitalist Robert Monster, PatentMonkey founder Paul Ratcliffe and Steve Pinkos, former deputy undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and deputy director of the the USPTO from 2004-2007. According to the Patents.com website, the new service will "provide the most comprehensive worldwide source of patent data - to include 450 million searchable indexed patent pages available in 15 native languages." The launch is anticipated in the first quarter of 2008.

2007 Top U.S. Patent Assignees from ISIClaims

Last week IFIClaims, a patent information company owned by Walters Kluwer Health , released its annual list of top U.S. patent assignees for 2007. According to the report, the USPTO issued 157,284 utility patents last year, a decline of about 10 percent from 2006. The top ten assignees (out of 35 listed) are:

1. IBM ..... 3,148
2. Samsung ..... 2,725
3. Canon ..... 1,987
4. Matsushita Elec. Ind. Co. ..... 1,941
5. Intel ..... 1,865
6. Microsoft ..... 1,637
7. Toshiba ..... 1,549
8. Sony ..... 1,481
9. Micron ..... 1,476
10. Hewlett-Packard ..... 1,470

IPI-ConfEx 2008 - International Patent Information Conference

The final program for IPI-ConfEx 2008, an international patent information conference, is now available online. IPI-ConfEx is scheduled for March 2-5 in Seville, Spain and will feature a of presentations from EPO and WIPO staff, patent information vendors and corporate patent searchers. The conference is organized by a number of European patent information associations.

Fictional Brands

Last Sunday's Toronto Star had an interesting story about fictional brands from film and literature that have inspired real-life products. Some examples include HOLIDAY INN hotels, said to have been inspired by the 1942 Bing Crosby movie of the same name, and BRAWNDO energy drink, a fake brand from Mike Judge's 2006 film Idiocracy. There's even a term describing this phenomena: "defictionalization".

Infringement = Triple Word Score

An AP story reports that Hasbro and Mattel, makers of Scrabble(R), are unhappy with an unauthorized online version of the game called Scrabulous. The companies, which share worldwide rights to the boardgame, have sent cease-and-desist letters to the two brothers from India who created the online version which is very popular on Facebook.

According to the official Scrabble(R) website, the first version of the game, called Lexico, was invented in 1931 by an unemployed architect named Alfred Mosher Butts. Unfortunately, his repeated attempts in the 1930s to secure a patent on the game and license it to Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley all ended in failure. In the mid-1940s, James and Helen Brunot of Newtown, Conn., who had acquired one of Butts' homemade sets, entered into a partnership with Butts to market a redesigned, simpler version of the game. The trademark Scrabble was registered on December 16, 1948. (Reg. 524,505) The Brunots patented an improvement to the game in 1956. (US2,752,158)

Hasbro owns the Scrabble trademarks and copyrights in North America; Mattel in the rest of the world.

Public PAIR Verification System

The USPTO has implemented a new verification system for users accessing Public PAIR (Patent Application Information Retrieval). Users must now enter a two-word verification code in order to access the system. The system is meant to block bots and spiders. Launched in mid-2003, Public PAIR contains bibliographic data, legal status and prosecution history information and facsimilie images of file wrapper documents for published applications and issued patents.

Everyday Edisons - Season 3

Everyday Edisons, a show about inventing that debuted on PBS last year, has announced its casting calls for season 3. The first casting call will be in Atlanta on Jan. 12. Other cities in the schedule include San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago and Boston. This is a great show for students and inventors who want to learn more about bringing products to market.

New Classification Orders, #1867-1874

The USPTO has issued eight new classifications orders since Oct. 1, 2007, an unusually large number for a three-month period. Classes affected include:

711 - Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory
714 - Error detection/correction and fault detection/recovery
715 - Data processing: presentation processing of document, operator interface processing, and screen saver display processing
506 - Combinatorial chemistry technology: method, library, apparatus
435 - Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology
374 - Thermal measuring and testing
365 - Static information storage and retrieval
360 - Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval
318 - Electricity: motive power systems

Chinese Patent Databases, EPC 2000, etc.

The December issue of Patent Information News has several interesting and useful articles on free patent databases from China; the impact of the European Patent Convention (EPC 2000) on patent information searchers; and patent information from Asia.

USPTO Discontinues Another Paper Publication

According to a notice published in the Federal Register, the USPTO is discontinuing the paper version of its Patent and Trademark Office Notices effective December 25, 2007. The Notices, which are also published in the weekly Official Gazette, include announcements on USPTO policies, fees, mailing addresses and patent attorney registration. Other information related to patents includes expired patents, certificates of correction, withdrawn patents, maintenance fee notices, new reexamination proceedings and reissue applications. Notices will continue to appear in the electronic Official Gazette and the USPTO's online archive, which contains notices from 1995 to the present.

In my opinion, this is a positive, if overdue change... Other patent offices long ago discontinued their print gazettes and notices. But it's also a missed opportunity because the electronic version of the Notices is simply a facsimile of the print version. Why not integrate the post-allowance data published in the Notices (e.g. corrections, disclaimers, withdrawn numbers, expired patents) with other existing tools such as the PatFT database? It would be much more convenient and time saving to have access to this data in one place.

Wikipedia References in Issued Patents

Back in September 2006 the USPTO banned patent examiners from using Wikipedia as a source of prior art information, citing its unreliability and lack of authority. Well, this apparently hasn't stopped examiners or inventors from citing the popular online encyclopedia in patents. The number of Wikipedia articles cited in patents in 2007 jumped to 293, almost three times the number cited in 2006.

Of course, this pales in comparison to other sources of scientific and technical information. Patents that cited IEEE publications totaled 14,440 in 2007. There were also 3,268 citations to ACM publications and 972 to Chemical Abstracts. Heavily cited science and engineering publishers included Elsevier (2,106), McGraw-Hill (1,089), Springer (1,538) and Wiley (2,963). Online sources are increasing in popularity: websites were cited in 10,870 patents issued in 2007.

U.S. Patent and PGPub Year-End Review

2007 was a bit of a mixed bag for U.S. patents and published applications. In Q4 the USPTO published 73,450 applications, the lowest number in more than a year and a 3 percent drop from the same quarter in 2006. However, the total number of PGPubs for the calendar year was 300,198, a 1.87 percent increase over 2006. This is the first year that PGPubs have exceeded the 300,000 mark. Approximately 1.6 million applications have been published since 2001. The USPTO issued 45,401 patents in Q4, a 3 percent decline from the same period in 2006. The total number of patents issued in 2007 dropped to 183,128, which is 13,485 or 6.86 percent fewer than 2006. Weekly issues and PGpubs were relatively stable with few peaks or canyons. (See Table 2.) According the the USPTO's FY2007 annual report released in November, inventors set another record for new filings, submitting 467,243 applications, a 4.85 percent increase over 2006. In order to deal with this continuing growth the USPTO hired another 1,215 examiners in FY2007, bringing the total patent examining corps to 5,477. Despite the additional staff the backlog of pending patent applications grew to 1,112,517, a 10.82 percent increase over FY2006.

Table 1. Quarterly Patent and PGPub Counts*

Quarter ..... Patents ..... PGPubs ..... Totals
Q1 ..... 47,332 ..... 74,277 ..... 121,609
Q2 ..... 45,828 ..... 76,640 ..... 122,468
Q3 ..... 44,567 ..... 75,831 ..... 120,398
Q4 ..... 45,401 ..... 73,450 ..... 118,851

2007 ..... 183,128 ..... 300,198 ..... 483,326

*Based on weekly data from the USPTO's PatFT and AppFT databases. Weekly totals may change after the fact due to withdrawn patents and published applications.

Table 2. Weekly Averages and Medians for 2007

Patents ..... 3,515 ..... 3,539
PGPubs ..... 5,762 ..... 5,659

Table 3. Number Ranges for 2007

Patents ..... 7,155,746 - 7,313,828
Reissues ..... RE39,452 - RE39,963
PGPubs ..... 2007/0000001 - 2007/0300346
Designs ..... D534,332 - D558,425
Plants ..... PP17,326 - PP18,372
SIRs ..... H2,177 - H2,207

Table 4. Withdrawn Patent and PGPub Numbers in 2007

Patents ..... 831
PGPubs ..... 143

Predictions for 2008

Last year I predicted that the USPTO would adopt series code 12 for utility and plant patent applications before the end of 2007. We won't know for sure for a few months, but the USPTO is on track to run out of serial numbers for series 11 before the end of the year. Recently published applications filed in September have serial numbers in the 850,000-855,000 range. Applications are published 18 months from the earliest priority filing date (provisional or foreign), which means that many new applications are published 6 months (or less) after filing. So it looks like series 12 will be appearing on or about Jan. 1. Series code 11 was adopted on Dec. 1, 2004.

Canadians Too Lazy to Invent?

A recent op-ed in the Globe and Mail (Dec. 27) uses patent statistics to make the case that Canada, in general, and the province of Alberta, specifically, needs to focus more on math, science and the creative arts in schools in order to ensure future prosperity. The writer argues that since Canada is about one-tenth the size of the U.S., Canadian inventors should have been granted 240,000 U.S. patents over the last twenty years. Instead, they have received only 77,594.

Although I agree that Canada needs to do more to cultivate innovation rather than rely on natural resources for economic growth, I'm generally skeptical about such comparisons. In fact, I believe that patent statistics show that Canadians are among the most inventive, creative people in the world.

Let's take a broader look at patenting trends among the G8 countries over the last few years. With just over 33 million people, Canada is the smallest country in the G8, yet since 2000 Canadian inventors have been granted nearly as many U.S. patents as their counterparts in France and Great Britain, which have populations almost twice as large. In terms of the per capita number of patents issued, Canada, with about 1000 people per patent, ranks second after Japan (488:1) and Germany (857:1) and well ahead of France (1702:1), Italy (3458:1) and Russia (60991:1).

A much more interesting statistic, in my opinion, is the fact that Canadian residents apply for and receive far fewer patents in Canada than the U.S. In 2006, Canadian inventors filed 10,243 U.S. patent applications and were granted 3,743 patents, but filed only 5,348 Canadian patent applications and received 1,495 patents. Obviously, this might be explained by the fact that Canadian inventors believe they can get more bang for their buck in the U.S., where the consumer and venture capital markets are much larger.

Table 1. G8 Patenting Trends, 2000-2007*

Country / Pop. / U.S. Patents

Canada / 33,390,141 / 34,702
France / 60,876,136 / 35,765
Germany / 82,400,996 / 96,102
Italy / 58,147,733 / 16,814
Japan / 127,433,494 / 289,628
Russia / 141,377,752 / 2,318
United Kingdom / 60,776,238 / 38,579
United States / 300,000,000 / 668,807

*Based on data from USPTO patent databases and annual reports.

E-Documents as Prior Art

Wynn Coggins, director for the USPTO's Group 3620 (Electronic Commerce), has written an article called "When is an Electronic Document a Printed Publication for Prior Art Purposes?

New Report: Patents per 100K Workers, 2001-2006

The State Science and Technology Institute (SSTI), a nonprofit organization that supports economic development through science, technology and innovation, has released a new report showing the ranking in number of patents issued per 100,000 workers for U.S. states and the District of Columbia from 2001-2006.

West coast states improved the most over the five-year period with Washington and Oregon ranked #1 and #2 and California at #4. In the farm belt, Kansas (#4) and Oklahoma (#7) showed strong growth, as did Massachusetts (#3) and Rhode Island (#6) in New England, which has been a hub of innovation for 150 years. Minnesota, Georgia and Colorado rounded out the top ten. Surprisingly, Idaho, which ranked #1 in all five years, had the fouth largest decline (-18.7), dropping from 328.2 patents per 100K workers in 2001 to 266.8 per worker in 2006. Idaho is in no danger of losing its #1 rank anytime soon, thanks to Boise-based Micron Technology, Inc., one of the top-ten patenting companies in the U.S. The Gem State's two closest competitors, California and Vermont mustered only 161.5 and 160.3 patents per worker in 2006.

Patents Per 100K Workers
% Change 2001-2006

1. Washington 46%
2. Oregon 36.8
3. Massachusetts 14.1
4. Kansas 13.4
5. California 12.9
6. Rhode Island 11
7. Oklahoma 7.7
8. Minnesota 6.3
9. Georgia 6.2
10. Colorado 5.9

EPO Survey: esp@cenet Exporting Function

The EPO is conducting a survey on a proposed improvement to esp@cenet scheduled for 2008. Specifically, they're asking for feedback on the usefulness of exporting data in CSV or XML formats.

Currently, the only patent office database (that I'm aware of) that supports exporting is the German PTO's DEPATISnet. You can download bib data in an Excel spreadsheet from up to 250 records at a time.

This is a wonderful development. At my university a number of engineering and business students take entrepreneurship courses that require them to use patent data to identify key companies/innovators, develop market profiles and analyze long-term industry trends. Being able to export data from esp@cenet would save them a lot of time. In my opinion, CSV is more useful than XML, especially for users such as students and private inventors who are not familiar with XML, since it can be easily imported into a spreadsheet for analysis.

If you're an esp@cenet user and would like to provide feedback, go to the esp@cenet forum at http://forum.espacenet.com/ and look in the Information Channel. You will need to register in order to submit comments and vote.

Dutch Six-Year Patent Will End in 2008

The Netherlands Patent Office has announced that it will phase out its six-year patent (C1 document) in 2008. The six-year patent is a weaker form of patent protection than the standard 20-year patent. An application for a six-year patent is automatically registered without a novelty search or examination 18 months after filing. According to the agency's latest annual report, 602 6-year patents and 1,771 20-year patents were granted in 2005. Of all patents granted, over 50 percent went to private inventors and companies of 1-200 employees.

Obama Promises More Transparency for Patent System

According to a story last month in the World Information Review, presidential candidate Barack Obama would make patent reform a top priority of his administration. One of his ideas is to open up the patent process to citizen input, which I assume would entail establishing a formal patent review program similar to the Community Patent Review Project being piloted by the New York Law School. I'm skeptical that such a system can have a meaningful impact on patent quality. To date, the Peer-to-Patent Project has registered 1,650 reviewers, an impressive number, but they have submitted only 94 pieces of prior art relating to 17 pending applications. Identifying prior art requires deep expertise and excellent analytical skills. Are there really that many qualified people willing to volunteer their time doing such complex work? Or would this just be an open invitation to cranks with time on their hands?