The March 13, 1997 report by the Government Accounting Office (GAO) to Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Chair, Committee on the Judiciary, included detailed statistics about the pendency and delay experienced by patent applications processed through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. This is a summary.

The Patent Office defines pendency by the time between the filing date and the date the application is either issued or abandoned for a single serial number. Many times one application is abandoned and the invention prosecution is continued in a subsequent application claiming benefit from the first (parent) application. The GAO report included pendency statistics (in months) for 1994 and 1995 evaluated both ways. This is a summary.

No Parent Application

all art units -- average of applications filed

1994     1995  

21.3     21.0   applications that were issued

18.3     17.9   applications that were abandoned

20.2     19.8   applications that were either issued or abandoned

art unit 2300 (computer systems) -- average of applications filed

1994     1995  

29.0     27.6   applications that were issued

26.0     24.4   applications that were abandoned

27.6     26.2   applications that were either issued or abandoned

With Parent Application

all art units -- average of applications filed

(30.2% of applications reviewed had parents, parent pendency is tacked on)

1994     1995  

46.9     46.4   applications that were issued

48.5     48.2   applications that were abandoned

47.7     47.2   applications that were either issued or abandoned

all art units -- average of applications filed

including those with parents and without parents

1994     1995  

28.0     28.5   applications that were issued

28.1     29.0   applications that were abandoned

28.0     28.7   applications that were either issued or abandoned