Patent statistics

Patent statistics are an important instrument for your own search supervision and the analysis of competitors. They are used in the area of market research as an alert system indicating trends and new developments. Analysis can be executed along different criteria, i.e.  

Patent statistics can retrieve supplementary information and help answer the following questions  

Patent statistics should not be used uncritically for analyzing competitors and not without further knowledge of patent legislation in the different countries, which could bring about i.e. time lags in the compilation of patents, etc. 

Prior to a statistical evaluation of search results enter SET TERMSET L, in order to store the selected terms with L- instead of E-numbers. The next move consists of selecting the field to be evaluated using the SELECT command (Fig. 132). When analyzing patentees, remember that different spelling gives several answers which have to be added by hand after the online search. An evaluation using the Company Code requires manual offline transformation of the Company Codes into company names, in order to pass on the result to the client. 

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Patent statistics should of course be handled with care and it would be wrong to equate low patent frequency with failure in productivity and economic development. Yet it is... 

Eurostat, European Commission (2015) Statistics explained. Retrieved from http //epp.eurostat.ee. europa.eu/statistics explained/index.php/Patent statistics. Accessed 14 May 2015... 

Griliches Z., 1990, Patent statistics as economic indicators a survey. Journal of Economic Literature, 28, 1661-1707... 

Fig. 132. Patent statistics regarding assignees to the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis...

Manufacturing processes have been improved by use of on-line computer control and statistical process control leading to more uniform final products. Production methods now include inverse (water-in-oil) suspension polymerization, inverse emulsion polymerization, and continuous aqueous solution polymerization on moving belts. Conventional azo, peroxy, redox, and gamma-ray initiators are used in batch and continuous processes. Recent patents describe processes for preparing transparent and stable microlatexes by inverse microemulsion polymerization. New methods have also been described for reducing residual acrylamide monomer in finished products. 

For purposes of tracking statistics on database classes, several subclasses for word-oriented and number-oriented databases have been estabhshed. Word-oriented databases can be subdivided into bibhographic, patent/trademark, directory, dictionary, full-text, and other categories. The first pubHcly... 

The patented synthesis combines the reagents in a different order and relies on statistical control of chenoselectivity in the reaction of (1-7) with (13). The advantage is that syrriraetrical (17) may be made from ethylene chlorohydrin,... 

Chapter 31 provided that anyone could request the Patent Office at any time to reexamine an issued patent by citing new references. Written arguments could be submitted, the patentee could narrow his claims, and the Patent Office would reexamine the patent in the light of this new information. If, during litigation, the validity of a patent were attacked because of new references that weren t before the Patent Office, Chapter 31 required that this too go to the Patent Office for reexamination and for an advisory opinion by the examiner. This is based on the statistic that somewhat over 70% of the patents that the courts have held invalid over the past few years were held invalid on the basis of references that were not before the Patent Office, and presumably if the Patent Office had had the references, they would not have issued the patent. Reexamination under Chapter 31 would be limited to published references, and thus there would be no need for discovery or depositions or cross-examination. It would be an inexpensive procedure that would cover almost all of the reasons for invalidity that could arise in a fullblown opposition proceeding. 

Since 1981, there have been >9000 requests for ex parte patent reexaminations with >500 per year in recent years. The patent office has granted over 90% of the reexamination requests made to it, with approximately 75% of the reexamined patents being at least partially modified if not completely revoked. While this cannot be taken as statistical reflection of all patents issued by theUSPTO, since the challenged patents are a selected group to begin with it does provide those wishing to challenge issued patents by an ex parte reexamination at least some reason to be optimistic.61... 

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