By Donald Zuhn --
The Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) reported today on data compiled by Esther Kepplinger, the Director of Patent Operations for Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, which the IPO believes "has received little attention and has contributed to misunderstanding of patenting trends." In particular, Ms. Kepplinger's analysis shows that Requests for Continued Examination (RCEs) rose from 8.3% in 1998 to 19.6% in 2007, while continuation and divisional filings remained relatively stable over the same period (continuation filings rose from 10.7% to 11%; divisional filings dropped from 5.1% to 4.8%). Noting that the Patent Office currently counts an original application as one application and a subsequent RCE as a "second" application (with the original application counting as an abandoned application), the IPO argued that "[r]eported increases in U.S. patent filings of 9.2 percent in 2006 and 5.2 percent in 2007 would have been substantially smaller without the increase in RCEs," and further, that "[t]he highly-publicized decline in the USPTO’s 'allowance rate' . . . is attributable in part to the rise in RCEs, which results in more unallowed (i.e., abandoned) applications."
Ms. Kepplinger (at left) discussed her analysis on filing trends last month during a panel discussion at the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) International Convention. For more information regarding Ms. Kepplinger's presentation, Patent Docs readers are encouraged to refer to our report on the presentation (see "Docs at BIO: Panel Discusses Impact of USPTO Rules Changes and Patent Reform Legislation on Biotech Patenting").
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