Intellectual Property Law

Patents Issued to Marylanders Down, Applications Increase

By Brian Wm. Higgin

     U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) records show that for the period January through March 2008, the PTO granted 468 patents naming at least one Maryland resident as an inventor or joint inventor (based on residence addresses supplied by patent applicants to the PTO). However, that is a 7% decline in the number of patents issued to Maryland inventors for the same period in 2007 (502), and a 4% decline over 2006 numbers (485).

     The number of published patent applications naming at least one Maryland inventor in the first quarter of 2008 was up compared to last year. According to the PTO, 857 patent applications naming at least one Maryland inventor were published during the period January through March 2008, which is an 11% increase in the number of patent applications published for the same period in 2007 (773 patent applications), and a 15% increase over 2006 numbers (743).

Full post as published by Maryland Intellectual Property Law Blog on April 02, 2008 (boomark / email).