Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has a robust set of statistical programs and resources that are primarily focused on providing public access to data about intellectual property (IP) activity. This data is essential for researchers, businesses, policymakers, and the public to understand trends in innovation and brand protection.
Key Statistical Programs and Resources
| • | Dashboards: The USPTO maintains public dashboards for both patents and trademarks. These interactive tools provide a high-level overview of key metrics on a regular basis (monthly for patents, quarterly for trademarks). The dashboards include data on: |
| o | Application filings and grants |
| o | Backlog and pendency (the time it takes for an application to be processed) |
| o | Workload and staffing data |
| • | Open Data Portal: This is the USPTO's primary hub for open data. The portal provides access to a wide range of free, publicly available datasets and APIs. This allows users to download bulk data and perform their own in-depth analysis on patent and trademark information, including: |
| o | Bibliographic data from patent applications and grants |
| o | File wrapper data (the electronic record of an application) |
| o | Trademark application and registration data |
| • | Statistical Reports: The USPTO's Patent Technology Monitoring Team (PTMT) and other offices regularly publish detailed statistical reports. These reports often provide historical data and are broken down by various categories, such as: |
| o | Geography: Patent and trademark activity by U.S. state, country of origin, or foreign country. This helps to show where innovation is happening both domestically and internationally. |
| o | Technology Class: Patent data categorized by different technology fields (e.g., computer technology, medical devices, chemicals). This provides insight into emerging and dominant areas of innovation. |
| o | Applicant Type: Data on filings from corporations, universities, and independent inventors. |
| • | Economic Analysis: The USPTO's Office of the Chief Economist conducts research and analysis on the economics of intellectual property. They use statistical methods to study the impact of patents and trademarks on the U.S. and global economies. |
| • | Collaborations: The USPTO also works with international partners like the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and other major IP offices (the IP5) to harmonize data and produce global intellectual property statistics, which are often featured in reports like WIPO's "World Intellectual Property Indicators." |
