Last Thursday, the USPTO announced “record breaking year-end numbers” demonstrating “historic improvement in the quality of patent and trademark reviews and subsequently the quality of issued patents and registered trademarks.” According to the USPTO announcement (link below), in FY2007 the USPTO reviewed over 360,000 patent applications achieving 96.5% quality compliance, and the decisions of its examiners were upheld by the USPTO’s patent appeals board nearly 70% of the time. During the same period, the USPTO reviewed over 323,000 trademark applications achieving over 97% quality compliance, noting that the average time from the filing of an initial trademark application to a first action from an examining attorney was less than three months. According to Jon Dudas, the Director of the USPTO, “The sustained trend of quality improvements are a tribute to the internal quality initiatives of our managers and employees," and "Of course, the quality of patent and trademark examination is a shared responsibility that begins with the application." Additional comments and statistics are provided in the announcement and the full FY2007 Performance and Accountability Report linked below.

USPTO Announcement: LINK
FY2007 Report: LINK