Intellectual Property Law

Gerard Torres of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) said an analysis of patent filings at his organisation suggests there is usually a lag of about one year between a recession and its effect on patent filings.

"The current recession is typical in this manner, as monthly patent filings did not begin to display weakness until late 2008, early 2009. This may mean the worst is yet to come in terms of the decline in patent filings. Total patent filings are expected to be down by about 1% to 2%," he said.


The EPO acknowledged that a similar picture is evident in Europe where the full impact of the recession on patent filings will not be clear for some time. A spokesperson said companies follow a range of patterns when filing patents in several countries, with timescales ranging from 12 to 32 months.

"We may get the full picture of how the patenting activity was influenced by the crisis later this year, or perhaps only next year," a spokesperson said.

Read "Patents suffer as crisis hits innovation" (link)

Full post as published by Two-Seventy-One Patent Blog on October 28, 2009 (boomark / email).