By Dennis Crouch
Since 2004, patent applicants have been filing fewer and fewer patent claims per application. The chart below is just one example. It shows the number of applications that include more than three independent claims, grouped by application filing date. (The chart only includes published applications). One interesting result here is that, although more applications are being filed each year the total number new patent claims being applied-for has decreased over the past decade.
This is an update from my prior post "Fewer Jumbo Patents."
