Rowan Analytics Insights
Patent Prosecution Analytics Benchmarking Report – April 2023

Comparison of Technology Centers Utilized in 2011 and 2021

This month, Rowan pivots to a study of the spread of Technology Centers that received granted patent applications. We decided it might be interesting to compare two sets of data – patents granted in 2011 and patents granted in 2021. What had changed in that 10 year span? Did some Technology Centers become more “popular” – receiving a larger share of granted patents? And some decline?

To start, we analyzed granted patents in 2011, and determined the percentage of total granted patents that each Technology Center received:

Then we pulled the same data for 2021:

While looking at the two shows that some of the pie slices grew and some shrank, it is easier to see the changes with this graph:

The two technology centers that “grew” the most were 2400, Computer Networks, Multiplex, Cable and Cryptography/Security, and 3700, Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing and Products, both of which experienced a 28% gain. They were closely followed by 2600, Communications, which grew 25%.

There were five Technology Centers which received a smaller share of granted patents in 2021 compared to 2011. 1700, Chemical and Materials Engineering, experienced a 18% decline, and 1600, Biotechnology and Organic received a 17% decline. 2800, Semiconductors, Electrical and Optical Systems and Components had a smaller decline of 10%. The smallest declines were 3600, Transportation, Electronic Commerce, Construction, Agriculture, Licensing and Review, with a 6% decline, and 2100, Computer Architecture Software and Information Security, which saw a 4% decline.

What caused each of these changes? Technology shifts over time as new industries appear and others are made obsolete. In our next sets of newsletters, we’ll dig into each of these Technology Centers and examine the changes over time in further detail.

If you would like to receive data on applications filed by your firm or your company like the below, to help you understand the power of analytical data to help you, please contact us and we will be happy to analyze your applications as a courtesy.