FY2017: PTO On Course for Record Number of Issued Patents

by Dennis Crouch

The chart below shows the number of utility patents issued each fiscal year going back to 1980.  FY2017 has 7-weeks remaining. If issuances remain steady, then we’ll see a substantial increase in the number of patents issued over FY2016.  Importantly, the increase is not due to increased new application filing but instead reflects the PTO continuing to work through its backlog of pending cases.