http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2013/04/patent-grant-update.html
It looks like the number of patents issued has continued to increase since 1983 with a slight drop during the recession. The numbers have since picked up to reach record highs and are on track to be the year with the highest number of patents issued. As technology is advancing there is more use to file patents. Also, now that the patent "game" has received more publicity with many high profile cases resulting in millions of dollars transferring hands people are starting to see dollar signs in their eyes. It is great that our government is able to process this many patents in the coming years and are willing to help protect the intellectual property of inventors but not all of the people filing patents are doing it for the right reasons. The drop during the recession makes me wonder why. Was it because patents are somewhat pricey to file or was it because people were just focusing their efforts elsewhere?
I don't necessarily agree that the rise of issued patents is in direct accordance to a rise in innovation. The USPTO has become more lenient with its standards to reduce their backlog. This will only cause more patent discrepancies in the future.
ReplyDeleteThere are a variety of features that we could hypothesize are responsible for the rise, however, it is unequivocal that as the rate of innovation accelerates, the value of each patent decays fast w.r.t time evolution.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I think the reason why so many more patents are being filed now is because there is more use for it. As innovation expands you want to protect what oyu made up and not have it stoeln by anyone because replicating products is just so easy these days. As small things start to matter when building a product, protecting whats yours is the right thing to do.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I think the patent system needs major reform. I wish I had a solution in mind, but I'm sure some smart business man will figure out a way to fix it.
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that patent litigation can reward the winner more than the amount one can make from the patent itself encourage patent filing. It's more like a risk vs reward thing that keep the number of patents rising recently. In recession, people just being more realistic about the situation and result a drop in patent filings. That's just my theory,of course.
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