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More on the 44% patent grant rate

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

Further to the matter of the 44% patent grant rate, the 271blog quoted USPTO Director Dudas:

Our allowance rate has dropped from 72 percent in 2000, to 44 percent in the first quarter this year. This is due partly to our quality initiatives, but much is due to the lack of quality in many applications we receive.

In earlier prepared testimony to Congress, Dudas had not mentioned "over which time period" the 44% number applied.
[See IPBiz on 28 Feb.: IPBiz notes that it is not totally clear whether the 44% relates to fiscal 2007 [as does the 362,000 number] or for some other time period. ]

Note: Lawrence B. Ebert, On Patent Quality and Patent Reform, 88 JPTOS 1068 (2006) and "Things are not always what they seem to be," Intellectual Property Today, October 2005, available on LEXIS.

Further, see A letter to the Wall Street Journal about "Patently Absurd" on March 1, 2006

Full post as published by IPBiz on March 07, 2008 (boomark / email).