Intellectual Property Law

Number of Patents Issued to Marylanders Continues Downward Trend

By Brian Wm. Higgin

     U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) records show that for 2008, the PTO granted 1,942 patents naming at least one Maryland resident as an inventor or joint inventor (based on residence addresses supplied by patent applicants to the PTO). That is a 1% decline in the number of patents issued to Maryland inventors for the same period in 2007 (1,963), and an 8% decline over 2006 numbers (2,116).

     The number of published patent applications naming at least one Maryland inventor in 2008 was up compared to last year. According to the PTO, 3,187 patent applications naming at least one Maryland inventor were published during 2008, which is a 7% increase in the number of patent applications published in 2007 (2,992 patent applications), and a 3% increase over 2006 numbers (3,082).

Full post as published by Maryland Intellectual Property Law Blog on January 03, 2009 (boomark / email).