Maryland Intellectual Property Law Blog : Maryland Intellectual Property Lawyer & Attorney : Brian Wm. Higgins : Serving Baltimore, Columbia, Frederick

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Summary:  As reported in September, the first eight months of 2007 saw a decline in the number of patents granted to Maryland inventors compared to the previous year. That trend continued into September and October.

     U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) records show that for the period January through October 2006, the PTO granted 1,799 patents naming at least one Maryland resident as an inventor or joint inventor (based on residence addresses supplied by patent applicants to the PTO). However, the PTO only issued 1,658 patents to Maryland inventors for the same period in 2007, an eight percent decline over 2006 numbers.

     For the month of October 2007, the PTO granted 192 patents naming at least one Maryland resident as an inventor or joint inventor. The PTO had issued 207 patents to Maryland inventors in October 2006, a 7% difference.

     The number of published patent applications naming at least one Maryland inventor in October 2007 was also down, continuing a trend seen in the first eight months of 2007 (compared to 2006). According to the PTO, 249 patent applications naming at least one Maryland inventor were published in October 2007, compared to 252 patent applications published during the same period in 2006, just a 1-percent difference (the overall trend for the year--ten months--shows barely a two-percent decline over the same period in 2006).

Comments:

• See related posts for June, July, and August (sorry, no September data)
  
  
• As I've stated before, an eight percent decline in the number of patents issued to Maryland inventors is not insignificant and clearly suggests a decline in innovation; however, it would be incorrect to conclude that the number of issued patents (or published patent applications) is the best indicator of the level of innovation in Maryland, as many other variables also correlate with innovation.  There may also be certain conditions affecting the number of patents being issued by the PTO today compared to last year, including the availability of PTO Examiners.