At the end of each fiscal year, the USPTO releases a Performance and Accountability Report, with statistics about patent and trademark allowance rates, average pendency, and other details. The USPTO recently released its Performance and Accountability Report for Fiscal Year 2018. This means that it’s time for IP Spotlight’s annual review of the question: “how long does it take to receive a patent or register a trademark?”
To answer that question, here are a few highlights from the USPTO’s FY 2018 report:
Patents: The USPTO continued a seven-year trend of reducing overall patent application pendency in FY 2017. The average time between filing and first office action was 15.8 months, which is down a few week’s from last year’s measure. Average total pendency (time from start to grant or abandonment) also dipped to 23.8 months.
The report did not discuss the effect of the USPTO’s “Track 1” expedited examination option on the overall timeline. Applicants who pay the additional fee for Track 1 processing typically receive a first action within 4-6 months of filing, and allowance or final action within 12 months of filing.
The wait times vary depending on the technology involved. Patent applications for computer architecture and mechanical engineering inventions generally experienced the longest waits, while applications for communications and semiconductor technologies moved relatively quickly. The breakdown by technology included:
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biotechnology and organic chemistry (USPTO Technology Center 1600) had an average wait time of 12.5 months to first action, and an average total pendency of 22.9 months;
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chemical and materials engineering (USPTO Technology Center 1700) had an average wait time of 18.0 months to first action, and an average total pendency of 27.3 months;
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computer architecture (USPTO Technology Center 2100) had an average wait time of 19.4 months to first action, and an average total pendency of 28.4 months;
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networks, multiplexing, cable and security (USPTO Technology Center 2400) generally waited 15.9 months to first action, and have an average total pendency of 25.3 months;
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communications technologies (USPTO Technology Center 2600) had some of the shortest average wait times — 11.0 months to first action, and an average total pendency of 19.9 months;
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semiconductors, electrical systems and optical systems (USPTO Technology Center 2700) had an average wait time of 12.7 months to first action, and an average total pendency of 21.6 months;
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methods relating to transportation, construction, agriculture and e-commerce (USPTO Technology Center 3600, in which the e-commerce inventions are often considered to involve “business methods”) had an average wait time of 18.2 months to first action, and an average total pendency of 25.5 months; and
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mechanical engineering products (USPTO Technology Center 3700) had an average wait time of 19.0 months to first action, and an average total pendency of 28.4 months.
339,534 patents issued in FY 2018 — a 2.3% decrease from last year’s all-time high. The overall patent allowance rate was 56.3% – a dip from last year’s 59.4% allowance rate.
The number of patent applications filed in FY 2017 was 647,349 — a slight (1% decrease from last year’s number. Of these applications, approximately 596,000 were utility filings and 169,000 were provisional filings. The other patent applications were design, plant, or reissue filings.
Trademarks: In FY 2018 the average time from filing to first Office Action in a trademark application increased to 3.5 months, up from 2.7 months in 2017. Average total pendency remained about the same as last year: 9.6 months as compared to 2017’s 9.5 months.
The total number of trademark applications filed was 638,647, an all-time high and the third consecutive year of double-digit growth. The total number of registrations granted was 367,382, also an all-time high and a 12.2% increase over last year’s grant rate.
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