During 1997-2001, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted almost half a million patents and over 700 organisations were granted more than 100 patents each during these five years.
Overall, more than 3,53,000 utility, plant and reissue applications were filed in 2004 alone and out of these, foreign applicants filed more than 1,59,000.
Evalueserve estimates that as many as 5,00,000 patent applications will be filed with the USPTO in 2010
Within the US, the task of preparing, filing and prosecuting patent applications as well as that of performing other intellectual property work (preparing, filing and prosecuting trademark applications and copyrights, intellectual property or IP litigation and IP asset management) is being performed by approximately 30,000 attorneys and agents who are registered with the USPTO.
In order to meet the rising demand for the additional IP work, Evalueserve predicts that this number will exceed 38,000 by 2010; otherwise, the corresponding prices will rise very sharply.
Currently, many large organisations have in-house IP divisions that usually consist of agents, associates, lawyers and business development professionals who handle pretty much all kind of IP work.
However, most small and medium-sized enterprises do not have such divisions, and even many large firms often outsource some -- or all -- of their IP work to external, US-based law-firms.
Rediff.com
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