Today, April 7, 2015, marks the day that the U.S. Patent Office issued Patent No. 9,000,000.
(Editor’s Note: A tip of the hat to Dennis Crouch’s Patently-O Blog for pointing out that the U.S. Patent Office issued Patent No. 9,000,000. In my humble view, every IP practitioner should subscribe to the Patently-O Blog – it is an excellent source of highly relevant, current information in the IP world.)
When I began my legal career in 2000, we were in the 6 million range for issued patents. Now, nearly 15 years later (with 3 million patents being issued during that time!), we are in 9 million range for issued patents. Incredible.
The rate between “million milestones” for issued U.S. patents has increased steadily throughout history. For example, it took 75 years for the first million patents to issue. For the next two million patents (2,000,000 and 3,000,000 ranges), it took 50 years to issue. For the next two million patents (4,000,000 and 5,000,000 ranges), it took 30 years to issue. Most recently, it has only been 4 years since the last “million milestone” (for 8,000,000).
Shown below is the historical data for U.S. issued patents:
|
Patent No. |
Date Issued |
Years Between “Million Milestones” |
|
1* |
July 13, 1836 |
|
1,000,000 |
August 8, 1911 |
75 years |
|
2,000,000 |
April 30, 1935 |
24 years |
|
3,000,000 |
September 12, 1961 |
26 years |
|
4,000,000 |
December 28, 1976 |
15 years |
|
5,000,000 |
March 19, 1991 |
15 years |
|
6,000,000 |
December 7, 1999 |
8 years |
|
7,000,000 |
February 14, 2006 |
7 years |
|
8,000,000 |
August 16, 2011 |
5 years |
|
9,000,000 |
April 7, 2015 |
4 years |
* Note: The first patent actually issued on July 31, 1790. However, until 1836, when a fire at the Patent Office destroyed all issued patents (estimated at around 10,000 patents), U.S. patents were only identified by titles and dates. Following the 1836 fire, a serial numbering system was instituted, starting with Patent No. 1.
At the current rate, the ten millionth U.S. patent should issue sometime in 2019 (or sooner!).
