Patent Awards Rise 31% in 2010

The United States Patent Office issued a record 219,614 utility patents in 2010, a 31 percent increase from 2009, said an annual report released Monday by IFI Claims Patent Services. It’s the largest annual increase on record, IFI said.

U.S. companies captured 50.3 percent of all patents, up from 49 percent in 2009 and more than twice as many as runner-up Japan at 21.3 percent and almost 10 times third-place South Korea at 5.4 percent. Germany was fourth at 5.2 percent and Taiwan fifth at 3.8 percent.

IBM held its lock as the top company awarded patents for the 18th straight year, with a record 5,896 patents, up 20 percent from 4,914 in 2009. South Korea’s Samsung trailed with 4,551 patents, and Microsoft was third with 3,094, up 6.5 percent. Apple patents rose 94 percent to 563. Qualcomm’s rose 84 percent to 657.

The increase in patents suggests that the recession hasn’t hit patent flow in the U.S., said Darlene Slaughter, IFI Claims Patent Services general manager. Faster turnaround times by the USPTO combined with a five-year plan to increase productivity fueled the growth, she said. Despite the changes, the USPTO still faces a backlog of patent applications, she added. The USPTO launched the effort in 2010 partly to shorten patent pendency time to within one year of filing, according to the USPTO’s strategic plan.

The jump in awards probably results more from the USPTO’s drive to make itself more efficient, said Slaughter. The number of patent applications remained steady during the last three years, she said. The most significant change has been hiring more patent investigators, Slaughter said: “The training process is finally starting to pay off.”

But don’t automatically link economic growth to the sheer number of patents, warned law firm Hogan & Lovells partner David Brenner. Most companies loathe cutting research and development budgets because they realize it drives growth, he said. “If you stop inventing, you stop growing the company.”