Over 443,000 patents were filed and over 183,000 issued in the United States in 2006. This represents a 115% increase in patent filings from a decade ago. However, it now takes longer than ever to get a patent - more than 31 months on average. And only 54% of patent applications were allowed, the lowest rate on record; the rest were rejected as being unpatentable.

With a backlog of over 700,000 patent applications to examine, and over 1,000,000 applications pending, the patent office has been hiring examiners to keep pace with demand. The USPTO used its nearly $1.6 billion dollars in revenue to hire a record 1,218 patent examiners, creating a workforce totaling 8,189 employees. Still, even with a plan to hire over 5,000 more examiners over the next five years, the USPTO admits that they will not be able to keep up with the volume of applications.

Some more interesting facts from the USPTO Annual Report:

* Silicon Valley helped make California the leader in patents. California residents secured 23,579 patents, over three and half times that of Texas residents with 6,345 issued patents, and New York with 6,075. Wyoming and Alaska are at the bottom of the list with 57 and 44 patents, respectively.

* Residents of Japan were issued 36,481 US patents, nearly 20% of all patents issued for the year. Germany followed Japan with 10,083 patents. Taiwan trailed with 7,356.

* The USPTO translated 21,305,642 written words.

* In the last quarter, 28.7% of applications were filed electronically.

* The US Navy filed more patents (1,598) than any other government agency.

* The USTPO generated a net income of $80.2 million.

Source: United States Patent and Trademark Office Performance and Accountability Report, Fiscal Year 2006.