Statistics released by the United States Patent and Trademark Office show that in 2010, the United States authorized a total of 219,614 invention patents, of which 201,909 were issued by enterprises, accounting for 91.9% of the total number of invention patents authorized in that year, 1,100 by the government, accounting for 0.5% of the total, and 16,605 by individuals. pieces, accounting for 7.6% of the total. In the 25 years from 1986 to 2010, the United States has accumulatively authorized 3,279,472 invention patents.
Since 1986, the proportion of corporate invention patent authorizations in the United States has increased year by year, from 80.5% before 1997 to 91.9% in 2010, while the proportion of individual invention patent authorizations has continued to decline. 17.9% before 1997 fell to 7.6%. Among the cumulatively authorized invention patents from 1986 to 2010, the proportion of enterprise invention patents authorized reached 85.8%.
Among the invention patents authorized by the United States in 2010, domestic patent holders and foreign patent holders have 110,682 and 108,932 respectively. The proportion of foreign invention patents authorized has increased steadily, from 44.0% before 1997 to 49.6% in 2010. The proportion of domestic and foreign invention patents has been divided into half, and the proportion of foreign invention patents authorized by enterprises is as high as 95.5%. , indicating that foreign invention patent layout in the United States continues to increase and the quality continues to improve.
Although the proportion of foreign invention patents granted in the year has been increasing, the proportion of invention patents granted by domestic companies in the United States has remained at around 45%. In 2010, the number of invention patents granted by domestic companies in the United States reached 97,756, and the proportion of the total number of invention patents granted in the United States continued to increase, from 74.7% before 1997 to 88.3% in 2010, an increase of nearly 14 percentage points. The innovation capability remains stable and is the absolute main force of domestic innovation in the United States.