by Dennis Crouch
The chart above is titled USPTO Patent Grant Rate. For this post, the "grant rate" refers to how many patents are being granted rather than the percentage of applications that are patented. The chart itself shows an annualized grant rate calculated on a 20-week moving average. In addition, I color-coded the chart to identify the name of the USPTO Director at the helm for each date. Because of the backward-looking 20-week average, calculations in the early months of any Director's term will include some patents issued during the term of a prior director.
The chart generally has an upward trend that corresponds with an increase in the number of patent applications being filed and patents being issued. That information can also be found in charts that only show annual information. This chart is intended to move to a deeper level of granularity to identify trends within a given year. The chart shows a number of peaks and valleys that each have an interesting story.
