Canadian Patents Reach 18,554 in 2007-2008

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office released its annual report for 2007-2008 earlier this year. The number of patents granted in 2007-2008 was 18,554, up from 16,100 in 2006-2007. The United States ranked first with 8,534 patents, or 46 percent of the total. Japan was second with 1,814 followed by Canada with 1,813. Almost 90 percent of Canadian patents were granted to foreign inventors.

Canadian Patents: Top Ten Countries

United States.....	8534.....	46%
Japan.....	1814.....	9.78%
Canada.....	1813.....	9.77%
Germany.....	1384.....	7.46%
France.....	957.....	5.16%
UK.....	749.....	4.04%
Switzerland.....	583.....	3.14%
Sweden.....	408.....	2.20%
Netherlands.....	312.....	1.68%
Finland.....	290.....	1.56%

USPC Class Order #1886 - Class 439

The USPTO has published classification order #1886, affecting Class 439 - Electrical Connectors. This order replaces subclasses 607-610 with subclasses 607.01-607.59. Approximately 1,650 patents were classified as original references in the reorganized subclasses. There are approximately 76,000 patents currently classified in Class 439.

US Issues Patent 7,500,000

The USPTO issued patent no. 7,500,000 on March 3, marking a new milestone in US patent documents. The subject of the patent is a "Method or System for Assigning or Creating a Resource" in a computer storage device, such as a hard disk drive, non-volatile RAM, or optic disc. The patent was issued to four inventors, led by David W. Groves, and assigned to IBM.

Patent no. 7,000,000 was issued three years ago on Feb. 14, 2006 to John P. O'Brien of Dupont for a new type of polysaccharide fibers and their production.

USPTO Publishes 2,000,000th Application

On February 5, the USPTO reached an important patent document milestone: the two millionth published application. The first US application (2001/0000001) was published almost eight years ago on March 15, 2001. The USPTO published 6,581 applications on Feb. 5. Depending on how you count (including or not including withdrawn published applications), the two millionth published application could be 2009/0035278, Reoviruses Having Modified Sequences, or 2009/0033321, Rotational Angle Detection Device.

The inventor listed on the first application is Matthew Coffey of Calgary, Alberta. The assignee is Oncolytics Biotech, Inc., also located in Calgary. Reoviruses are used to treat disorders where cells proliferate more rapidly than normal tissue growth, ie. cancerous tumors, in mammals. The inventor on the second application is Takeo Kurihara of Tokyo; the assignee is Tokyo-based Tomen Electronics Corporation. Kurihara's invention is related to devices used in magnetic sensors. Tomen has filed PCT and national applications on this technology in the US, Japan, China and Europe.

As of March 1, 2009, according to the USPTO website, the AppFT database now contains records for 2,021,756 published utility and plant patent applications.

Wikipedia References Increase

The Jan. 29 of CNET's Buzz Report has a funny rant about Apple's recently issued patent on a multi-touch graphical user interface. (US 7479949) Complaining about the USPTO's examination practices, reporter Molly Wood cites examples of existing prior art on multi-touch technology. Her funniest line is "This is on Wikipedia... you could look this up!"

Back in September 2006, the USPTO ordered examiners to stop using Wikipedia as a source of information for determining the patentability of inventions. However, examiners and applicants continue to cite it. The number of patents issued in 2008 that cited Wikipedia articles nearly doubled to 508.

Titles Added to Cited References in FPO

US patent records in FreePatentsOnline now display titles of cited US patent documents. This is a nice improvement since it provides more information about the reference without forcing you to leave the current document. Titles of cited references available in the USPTO database nor are included on patent documents.

However, I noticed recently that some FPO records do not include all the older cited references. For example, US 3,803,463 cites 8 US patent documents, the earliest being 8,843 issued in 1852 and 644,896 from 1900. However, the FPO record for this patent displays only 6 cited patents, the earliest being 2,401,815 from 1946.

After further testing it appears that the problem is limited to pre-1976 patents.

Inventor of TASER stun gun dies at age 88

Jack (John) Cover, inventor of the TASER stun gun used by thousands of police departments worldwide, has died at the age of 88. According to his obituary in the Washington Post, Cover, a former NASA scientist, invented the nonlethal device in the late 1960s in response to hijackings and riots. He applied for a patent for a "weapon for immbolization and capture" in 1970, filed a continuation on July 10, 1972 and and was finally granted a patent (US 3803463) on April 9, 1974.

Cover's 1974 patent has been cited by 43 patents including an "Electronic Disabling Device Having an Adjustable Output Pulse Power" issued on January 6, 2009 to Corey Rutz and Michael Kramer and assigned to the Defense Technology Corp. of America in Casper WY. (US 7474518)



The electric gun has been a long-time fixture in sci-fi and adventure stories. In fact, the name TASER was inspired by Cover's favorite character from a novel called Tom Swift and his Electric Rifle (TSER). The A was added later to make the name easier to pronounce. Inventors have been fascinated by electric weapons for more than 100 years. In his 1974 patent, Cover cited an electric harpoon patented by Dr. Albert Sounenburg and Phillipp Rechten in 1852. (US 8843). This is another great example of the importance of including older prior art in patent searches.

TASER International is based in Scottsdale, AZ and holds 25 US patents and dozens more worldwide.

Top Inventor Receives 577 US Patents in 2008

The other rather surprising statistic in the Boliven Patents Top 25 Report for 2008 was number of patents secured by the top-ranked inventor, Kia Silverbrook, founder of Silverbrook Research, a private R&D firm based in Sydney, Australia that specializes in inkjet printer technology. According to the report, and confirmed by checking the USPTO website, Silverbook received 577 US patents in 2008 (581 according to the USPTO). That's almost two patents a day. This is amazing. Thomas Edison received only 1,093 patents in his 60-year career. As of Feb. 12, Silverbrook is credited as an inventor on 2,430 US patents and 3,435 published applications. According to Silverbrook Research's website, the firm has more than 1,800 patents and 2,000 pending applications and employs over 400 research scientists, engineers and support staff.

Chinese University Ranks 10 in US Patents

This week Boliven Patents released its first Top 25 Report for 2008.

Some rather unexpected statistics caught my attention. The first was in the university assignees category. Not surprisingly, US schools dominated the list. The top five included the Univ. of California (252), MIT (228), Stanford (137), Caltech (115), and Wisconsin (99). But just breaking into the top ten was Tsinghua University (60), one of China's leading universities. According to the school's website, Tsinghua has 44 research institutes, 9 engineering research centres and 163 laboratories, including 15 national laboratories. And #24 was the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. This seems to confirm a trend noted by the WIPO and other organizations: patent activity in Asia is increasing rapidly. It's nice to see American universities getting some competition.

(The USPTO also produces a statistical report on academic patenting, but it only includes U.S. colleges and universities and was last updated in 2006.)

Canadian Patents Database - Representative Drawings

The CIPO's Canadian Patents Database now displays representative drawings in patent records. This is a great improvement as it allows searchers to immediately see drawings as they scan search results instead of requiring them to open up the drawing image file for each record. It appears that representative drawings are only available for issued patents and laid-open applications from about 1990 forward.

New USPC Classification Orders: #1881-1884

The USPTO's patent classification office has been busy the past few weeks. Four new classification orders (#s 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884) have been published since January 1, not including the one that I mentioned the other day that established Class 850 (#1885). The new orders outline changes to:

• Class 359 - Optical Systems and Elements
• Class 361 - Electricity: Electrical Systems and Devices
• Class 362 - Illumination
• Class 180 - Motor Vehicles

New USPC Class: 850 - Scanning Probe Techniques or Apparatus

The USPTO has created a new USPC class for inventions related to devices that scan or probe at the nano-scale. The full title is Class 850, Scanning-probe techniques and apparatus; applications of scanning probe techniques, e.g. scanning probe microscopy (SPM). The class was established under Classification Order 1885, released on Feb. 3. At this time, Class 850 consists of 63 subclasses, 1-63. No patents or published applications in the USPTO web-based database have been assigned to Class 850. This is not unusual as the classification data is updated bimonthly.

Consolidated Glossary of USPC Terms

A new Consolidated Glossary of U.S. Patent Classification Terms is now available on the USPTO patent classification website. The glossary consists of a comprehensive list of terms taken from the classification definitions of the USPC. Terms are listed in alphabetical order and grouped by class number for easy browsing. These definitions are useful to patent searchers in that many terms found in the USPC manual have technology-specific definitions that are different from standard dictionary definitions.

New Patent Databse from Boliven

Boliven, a New York-based company, has launched a free patent database called Boliven Patents Beta.

The database contains data and images for US patents from 1976 to present, EP documents from 1978 forward, WO applications from 1989 forward and JP abstracts from 1976 forward. Search options include Basic, Advanced, Expert and Patent Number.

Search results can be filtered by source, assignee, date, and document type and sorted by relevance or date. A "QuickFlip" display option allows searchers to flip through displays of front pages very quickly.

Users who register for personal accounts (by invitation only) can take advantage of analytical tools, search histories, alerts and lists. For more information, see the press release.

Patent Filings Slow Amid Economic Slowdown

The worldwide economic crisis appears to be having an impact on international patent filings. This week the WIPO announced that the number of international patent application filings in 2008 increased by 2.4 percent, a big drop from the 9.3 percent average pver the past several years. However, the number of applications filed was 164,000, an all-time high. The countries with the largest increases were Korea (12%) , China (11.9%) and Sweden (12.5%). The U.S. experienced a 1 percent drop. Australia, Italy, Netherlands, UK also experienced declines. Canada had a very respectable 4.2% increase.

New Guide to Using Patent Information from WIPO

WIPO recently published a new 44-page guide to using patent information.

The guide explains what a patent is, the information contained in a patent document, where patent information can be found, and how to use basic patent search strategies. Almost half of the guide is devoted to explaining how patent information can be used.

It's a well-written, concise introduction to the benefits of using patent information.

Locating Re-examination Certificates

Patent attorney Stephen Nipper recently posted on his blog, The Invent Blog, a question about re-examination numbers. It seems that the USPTO website has some erroneous examples of re-examination document numbers.

In brief, anyone may file a request for a rexamination of a patent on the basis of prior art consisting of patents or other publications. The USPTO will examine the prior art and decided whether some, all or none of the claims of the patent in question should stand. At the end of the review the USPTO issues a re-examination certificate that sets forth the results of re-examination. This certificate is then attached to the original patent.

Re-examination certificates are not indexed in the USPTO's web-based patent database. Instead, users can retrieve a copy of the certificate by retrieving the original patent, e.g. by searching the patent number and clicking on the "Images" button to see the TIFF image. The re-exam certificate is attached after the claims section. (See 3,876,375.)

When a request for re-examination is filed, the USPTO assigns the case a control number preceded by a series code. The series code 90 is used for ex parte re-examination proceedings (90/009,335) and 95 for inter partes proceedings (95/001,115). Since 1981 there have been approximately 9,500 ex parte re-examinations filed. And 500 inter partes re-exams have been requested since November, 1999. The number of requests has nearly doubled in the last decade, increasing from 350 in fiscal year 1998 to 650 in 2008.

It is possible to retrieve re-examination filings in the USPTO's Public PAIR (Patent Application Information Retrieval) System. Simply search the re-examination control number (including the series code, e.g. 90/010334). The file wrapper will contain all the documents and forms involved in the re-examination, including a copy of the patent in question, submitted prior art, e.g. patents and non-patent literature.

Promoting IP Awareness - Database of Materials

The WIPO has a new database called IP Outreach in Practice which contains "basic information and links to practical examples of interesting IP outreach initiatives."

It's quite an interesting collection and a great place to look for inspiration and ideas. You can search by category (IP creation, IP use and awareness, IP crime), format (tv program, curriculum material, newsletter, etc.). There's an advanced search for more complicated queries.

WIPO wants to continue building the collection. You can send examples of outreach materials or initiatives to outreach@wipo.int.

Browser Toolbar for Patent Info Resources

Patent Pal is a new browser toolbar that links numerous patent information tools and resources. Included are over 30 patent search sites, numerous IP blogs and newsfeeds, patent office websites, manuals, job sites, and much more. Users can customize the toolbar and add their favorite sites. This is a very cool and useful tool... one of the best I've seen in years. Patent Pal can be downloaded from http://www.thepatentpal.com/.

Patent Databases: 2008 in Review

USPTO
Early in 2008 the USPTO installed verification software in its Public PAIR (Patent Application Information Retrieval) system that requires users to enter a two-word code in order to access patent and published application files. This was done in response to repeated bulk downloading by web spiders and automated scripts that severely degraded PAIR's performance.

WIPO PATENTSCOPE
In September, WIPO announced that the complete file contents of published international applications would be made available through the PATENTSCOPE search system. As of December 30, 2008 only the PCT request form is available. Other types of documents to be added include correspondence, copies of forms and original documents filed by applicants.

In December, WIPO announced that it would suppress inventor and individual applicant address information in PATENSCOPE due to privacy concerns. This will apparently not affect PATENSCOPE searches or RSS search alerts based on inventor address criteria. And address data will still appear on the frontpage of PCT published applications in PDF format.

On January 1, 2009 WIPO implemented three new kind codes (A4, A8 and A9) for republished PCT applications.

EPO esp@cenet
In October, EPO introduced a number of enhancements to the esp@cenet international patent database. These include increasing the number of documents stored in "My List" from 20 to 100; the ability to export data from search results (up to 30 records at a time); date range searching; highlighting search terms; and a single Google-like search box.

IP Australia
In April IP Australia launched a new patent search system called AusPat. Contents include bibliograhic data from 1970 forward and full-text data from about 1998 forward. IP Australia's old system, PatentSearch, will be retired in February 2009.

FreePatentsOnline
In September FPO increased the storage of individual accounts to a maximum of 20 portfolios and 10,000 documents. FPO also added a chemical search function. SumoBrain, another fee-based patent search system from the creators of FPO, introduced free individual user accounts.

Patents.com
Launched in September, Patents.com offers access to full text US utility, reissue and design patents, published applications (including plant patent applications) from 1976 to the present and European patent documents from 1998? forward. Search modes include simple, advanced and expert; about thirty searchable fields. A bulk search option allows users to retrieve multiple patents by number. Patents.com is the reincarnation of PatentMonkey.com, a patent search site that operated from early 2006 to January 2008.

Google Patents
Google Patents added US published applications but data is about six months behind.