What is the average utility patent success rate?
It is no surprise that utility patents are substantially harder to obtain than design patents. What may be eye-opening is that the probability of obtaining a utility patent is a function of several factors. For example, the probability of getting a utility patent increases with time and with conducting an Examiner Interview.
Need to get a utility patent? Call US patent attorney Vic Lin at (949) 223-9623 or email vlin@icaplaw.com to explore how we can help you get the right results.
What is the probability of getting a utility patent granted?
According to this study of US utility patent applications from 1996 to mid-2013, about 55.8% of utility applications became granted patents without using continuation filings to create related child applications.
Other data suggests that the average allowance rate of utility patent applications is much higher at over 80%.
What are your chances of getting a utility patent rejected?
Based on this Yale statistical analysis of utility patent applications filed from 1996 to 2005, over 86.4% of utility patent applications received a first rejection. Only 11.4% of utility patent applications received an allowance without any rejections, also known as a “first action allowance.” About 2.3% of utility nonprovisional applications were abandoned before receiving an examiner’s decision.
When you factor out abandoned applications, there is roughly an 88.3% chance of an initial Office Action rejection.
To predict the probability of success of your utility patent application, do not expect an allowance without any rejections. Roughly 9 out of 10 utility patent applications will receive at least one Office Action rejection.
Over 38% of all filed utility applications received a second Office Action rejection while 36.1% received an allowance after responding to the first Office Action. 14.5% of utility patent applications were abandoned without responding to the first Office Action.
A helpful way to estimate your probability of success would be to assume:
- roughly 88% chance of getting a first rejection; and
- a little over 50% chance of getting a second rejection.
Bottom Line: How many utility patent rejections should you expect?
What does all of this mean? One way to look at the data is to conclude that an average utility patent application will likely receive at least two Office Actions. This appears to be consistent with the Office Actions per Grant Ratio (OGR) discussed below which is roughly 3 Office Actions for most examiners.
When it comes to utility patents, perhaps a more precise way to gauge the probability of success is on a case-by-case basis. In particular, you will need to evaluate your prospects after receiving the first refusal, the non-final Office Action.
These findings coincide with data showing that your probability of getting a utility patent increases with time. Common sense dictates that the more you continue to fight against rejections, the greater your chances of getting a utility patent.
What are chances of your utility patent application receiving a first rejection?
Of all utility filings between 1996 and 2005, over 86% of utility applications received a non-final Office Action. A small percentage of filings were abandoned before getting docketed. So it’s fair to say that of all utility nonprovisional applications that were not initially abandoned, 9 out of 10 will receive at least one rejection.
This high percentage of non-final Office Action at almost 90% seems to be consistent with our firm’s experience in utility patents. The prevalent use of obviousness rejections by examiners makes it difficult to predict the allowability of claims even when a prior art search was done before filing.
What are chances of overcoming a first rejection?
The Yale study provided a helpful analysis of the results of responding to a first Office Action rejection. What was quite interesting was that approximately 36% of all cases received an allowance after responding to a first Office Action. Over 38% of all cases received a second Office Action. That means that applicants had an almost 50-50 shot of getting an allowance after responding to the first Office Action. The actual percentage of allowance was slightly lower than 50% since a couple more percentage points of cases received a second Office Action.
What are chances of your utility patent application receiving a second rejection?
After filing a response to the first rejection, utility applicants had a little over 50% chance of getting a second rejection called a Final Office Action. Statistics get tricky to analyze when responding to a Final Office Action due to the nature of patent examination. Examiners are not as open to amendments and arguments in response to final actions, which leads to the prevalent use of RCE’s (Request for Continued Examination).
How many Office Actions should you expect to get a utility patent allowed?
Most patent examiners will reject a utility patent application three times before allowing it. In other words, you can expect a US nonprovisional patent application to receive three Office Actions before receiving an allowance.
What is the average number of Office Actions for a granted utility patent?
Here is a helpful study on the number of Office Actions per grant (OGR) ratio. Most patent examiners have an OGR ration of 3 or less, meaning that you can expect up to 3 Office Actions for most examiners.
If you end up with one of the more difficult examiners, however, you can expect between 4 to 10 Office Actions for a grant. Of course, it is possible and common for a US utility patent application to never get allowed.
Study by Prof. Sean Tu and Chris Holt: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3100326
Does the probability of getting a utility patent improve over time?
According to this helpful grant rate timeline by Patent Bots, the probability of allowance increases over time as measured from the date of the first Office Action. For example, your chances of success at one year from the date of the first Office Action is less than half at around 45%. At three years from the first refusal date, your chances of success are at approximately 67%. Any increase in the grant rate appears to plateau after three years from the first Office Action date.
Each patent examiner is different, and success rates will vary widely depending upon both the particular examiner and technology / USPTO art unit. Nonetheless, it is helpful to know that utility patent approval averages increase from less than 1/2 at to 2/3 as you go from 1 to 3 years from the first Office Action date.
Of course, all this is assuming that the applicant endures potentially multiple Office Action rejections without abandonment. As expected, more applications get abandoned as time goes on. One practical takeaway from these statistics is that those who hang in there longer improve their chances of getting a utility patent.
What is the probability of getting a design patent?
The chances of getting a design patent are significantly higher at approximately 84.5% for the 2020 fiscal year.
Need to get a patent granted?
We cannot guarantee success, but we will fight hard to get your patent application allowed. Contact US patent attorney Vic Lin at vlin@icaplaw.com or call (949) 223-9623 to see how we might help you overcome the rejections of your patent application.
