“We are able to’t be 100% sure of the pattern’s trigger, however it appears clear that patent error price is on the decline.”
In a really perfect world, issued patents wouldn’t include errors. In actuality, patent drafting is tedious and time-consuming work and perfection just isn’t an attainable purpose. The patent {industry} appears to be steadily getting higher, although.
In a current examine, we uncovered an 11.24% lower in errors per patent over the previous 4 years. We noticed this lower by reviewing each patent issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO) since 2020 – almost 1.4 million patents.
Listed below are the findings:
Momentary Dip or Lengthy-Time period Pattern?
The stability of the lower 12 months after 12 months throughout all three varieties of errors we monitor signifies a pattern. This isn’t a one-time anomaly. And an 11.2% lower in simply 4 years just isn’t a small dip. (It will have been fascinating to increase our assessment way back to 2010 or 2000. Sadly, the USPTO information format modifications over time and current instruments can’t deal with the older information codecs).
What Varieties of Patent Errors are Detectable?
For this examine, we targeted on three varieties of errors – numbering errors, antecedent foundation errors, and phrase help errors. Most of these errors had been chosen as a result of (1) they’re vital errors to keep away from and (2) the software program can reliably discover these errors.
Observe that the info solely consists of “crimson” errors within the software program’s proofreading outcomes. The “yellow” warnings weren’t included as a result of the warnings are extra subjective.
Numbering Errors: 10.3% Lower Since 2020.
Numbering errors embody each declare numbering errors (e.g., skipping a declare quantity or repeating a declare quantity) and dependency errors (e.g., a way declare relying from a system declare). Most (and possibly all) of the errors listed below are dependency errors.
The prevalence of a lot of these errors is small as a result of they’re simpler for people to search out. Nevertheless, they’re reducing as properly.
Antecedent Foundation Errors: 13.9% Lower Since 2020.
When claims introduce a time period, they need to use an indefinite article (“a” or “an”). When claims later refer again to the identical time period, they need to use the particular article (“the”). An antecedent foundation error happens the place the declare has a time period with “the” however no earlier introduction of the identical time period with out “the” was discovered.
Phrase Assist Errors: 9.8% Decline Since 2020.
Phrase help errors are declare phrases the place the phrase or a variant of the phrase (e.g., retailer, shops, saved, storing) was not discovered within the detailed description part of the patent. These usually are not truly errors, however in my opinion, it’s a very unhealthy follow for claims to make use of phrases that aren’t within the detailed description.
Attorneys Aren’t Good … And Neither is Automation.
It is very important notice that proofreading instruments usually are not good. Any proofreading software will miss some errors and can mark some issues as errors that aren’t truly errors. With trendy machine studying expertise, nevertheless, the accuracy of proofreading instruments is sort of excessive. Though the error counts for any single patent might not be precise, the instruments give us a dependable total view of industry-wide patent high quality by reviewing a whole 12 months of issued patents. After all, we will’t be 100% sure of the pattern’s trigger, however it appears clear that patent error price is on the decline.
Disclaimer: The creator is founding father of Patent Bots, a software program software that’s the supply of the info offered on this article.
