How many new inventions are created each year and what percentage are protected by a patent application?

Question

Most interested in the USA but would be interested in the same information for other countries.

Answer 1

First of all, inventions are NOT protected by patent applications; an application may be (and often is) denied if the applicant fails to show either originality or usefulness.

There is no way to know how many inventions are made every year, especially because some inventions are made repeatedly (you can invent something only to later find out that IBM patented it back in 1997).

There are, however, detailed patent statistics available from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office:

http://www.uspto.gov/go/taf/reports.htm

In 2004, for example, there were 356,943 utility patent applications filed and 164,293 utility patents granted.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Oops, sorry, wrong room. I was just looking for the bathroom!