IBM received more patents in 2005 than any other company, 2,941 in total. Second place goes to Canon with 1,828, followed by Hewlett-Packard with 1,797.

Links: USPTO List of Top 10 Patent Recipients.

Q: Can I patent features of a new version of an existing product? The new product performs the same function as the original product, but it looks and operates completely differently.

A: Improvements to existing products may be patentable if they are new, useful, and non-obvious. This is true even if the improved product retains the same basic function as the original, but the way it accomplishes that function has changed.

For example, an electronic device such as an mp3 player, or an iPod, may be improved so that it has a longer battery life, uses memory more efficiently, or can be manufactured more economically. The same basic function is the same - the device plays music - but the improvements provide advantages over the original design.

If the look of a product has changed, a patent can be filed that covers the appearance of the product; this is called a design patent.
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A record 409,532 patent applications were filed, and 165,485 patents were issued in 2005 according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Annual Report. Compared to 2004, this represents an 8.1% increase in filings, and an 11.6% decrease in issued patents (chart).

Expect to wait over two years for your patent to issue as the average total pendency (the time from when an application is filed until it is issued or abandoned by the applicant) was 29.1 months (in 2004 it was 27.6 months).

California led all other states with 48,568 patent applications filed, followed by Texas with 12,951, and then New York with 12,521 applications.

More than four out of every ten patent applications were filed by residents of foreign countries, 184,380 in total. Japan led all other countries with 65,025 applications, more than three times as many as the next two countries, Germany (18,245) and Taiwan (16,865).
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