## Breaking the Seal (Statistics on Continuations and Divisionals)

Today I am looking at statistics on continuing applications. This post was motivated by two questions that I wanted to explore: Question 1: Should I take…

## Design Patent Rejections – Update

Foreword: To date, the BigPatentData Blog has given little no attention to design patents. This is because I barely know the difference between a design patent and…

## A Fifty-Eight(!) Reference Obviousness Rejection

Last week a friend complained to me about an obviousness rejection that cited 8 references. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I told him to be…

## U.S. Patents to Foreign Inventors

There seems to be a fair amount of concern, or at least discussion, lately about how many patents are being filed in and by the…

## Did Alice bring more 102, 103, and 112 rejections?

Like a moth to a flame, this week I was again drawn to the USPTO Office Actions data set. Although, I previously found that coverage…

## Do Examiner Interviews Live Up to the Hype?

I have come across many clients and practitioners that take it as gospel that examiner interviews are always good and should be performed whenever possible.…

## Prosecution Poker with Examiner and Art Unit Appeal Statistics

In my previous post, I looked at two metrics – allowance rate and actions per disposal – that I find useful in assessing an examiner…

## The U.S. is Becoming Continuation Nation

Using USPTO bulk data for patents granted between 1976 and Jan 9, 2018, I extracted each patent’s earliest priority date and then used those dates…

## Apple Files a Bonkers Number of PTAB Petitions

In my last post I looked at various metrics for assignees and patent owners of patents challenged at the PTAB. Today I decided to turn the tables…

## Will the real parties in interest at the PTAB please stand up?

I recently came across the Lex Machina PTAB report discussing patent owners at the PTAB (they keep it behind a registration link, but you can…