In early September, David Kappos posted an article on his blog introducing the USPTO Data Visualization Center and Patents Dashboard. To help meet his goals of reducing the backlog of unexamined patent applications and driving patent pendency down, he will be making USPTO data easily accessible to the public through the Data Visualization Center and Patents Dashboard. He explained that traditionally the USPTO measured patent pendency at two points in the process: (1) measuring the average time from filing to the First Office Action; and (2) measuring the average time from filing to allowance or abandonment of the application. He stated that “these measures do not provide complete data about pendency across the USPTO. We therefore will now measure pendency in several additional ways to ensure we have a more complete picture, and will make the data available to the public.”
The patents dashboard provides USPTO performance indicators such as the number of applications in the backlog, production, actions per disposal, and staffing levels. The traditional “Total Pendency” measure stopped the clock with the filing of an RCE. A new measure, “Traditional Total Pendency Including RCEs” looks at pendency of applications from filing of the original application to ultimate disposal of that same application, including additional time attributable to RCE filings. Similar measures are provided for divisional applications and other types of continuation applications. The dashboard also provides information about pendency for applications in appeal. Some of the improvements the USPTO has made over the past year include a drop in the number of actions per disposal. One of the USPTO’s stated goals is to reduce first action pendency to an average of 10 months by 2015.
The August 2010 dashboard statistics at a glance are as follows:
1. First Office Action Pendency – 26.2 months;
2. Traditional Total Pendency – 35.4 months;
3. Patent Application Backlog – 728,055;
4. Average Actions Per Disposal – 2.4; and
5. Patent Examiners on Staff – 6,038.
The dashboard will be updated monthly. For those interested in more details about a particular statistic, a more detailed spreadsheet will be available for each measure with available data. Mr. Kappos has set up a mailbox for feedback from the public.
- Katie Cooper
The University of Pittsburgh has been in a patent litigation suit with Varian Medical Systems, Inc. since the University of Pittsburgh filed a patent infringement suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on April 13, 2007. The University of Pittsburgh owns two patents pertaining to image-guided radiation therapy technology: U.S. Patent No. 5,727,554 entitled “Apparatus responsive to movement of a patient during treatment/diagnosis” and U.S. Patent No. 5,784,431 entitled “Apparatus for matching X-ray images with reference images.”
API Technologies, LLC owns U.S. Patent No. 6,859,699 entitled “Network-Based Method and System for Distributing Data.” On May 12, 2009, API Technologies filed suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas alleging patent infringement against Facebook, Inc.; Amazon.com, Inc.; Amazon Web Services LLC; AOL LLC; Mapquest, Inc.; Bebo, Inc.; Truveo, Inc.; Best Buy Co. Inc.; CBS Corporation; CBS Interactive Inc.; CBS Interactive Media Inc.; CNET Investments, Inc.; CNET Networks, 2 Inc.; Last.FM Limited; The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation; Hoover’s, Inc.; Google Inc.; Android, Inc.; Thomson Reuters Corporation; Thomson Reuters PLC; Thomson Reuters U.S. Inc.; Thomson Reuters U.S.A. Inc.; Reuters America, LLC; and Yahoo! Inc.
On March 7, 2006 Google Inc. filed for a design patent for its home page. The patent issued on September 1, 2009 as U.S. Pat. No. D599,732. There are ten (10) listed inventors on the patent. 
Kennametal Inc. filed a patent infringement suit against Sandvik, Inc., Seco Tools Inc., and Walter USA, Inc. on June 29, 2009 in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
