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Law360 (February 11, 2021, 7:47 PM EST ) The number of patent applications being filed at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has taken a hit due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the drop shouldn't have a detrimental effect on the agency's finances, USPTO officials said at a meeting Thursday.
Drew Hirshfeld, who began performing the duties of USPTO director last month after the departure of former Director Andrei Iancu, told the agency's Patent Public Advisory Committee that the economic disruption caused by COVID-19 has resulted in fewer patent applications.
"Certainly, with the pandemic, I get asked a great deal about our filing rates and even our revenues," he said.
He said the agency has found that for the first four months of the fiscal year, which began in October, the number of patent applications that were filed was down just less than 7% compared to the same time last year. However, the agency had been planning for such a dip, he said.
"This was expected, and quite frankly, our numbers are tracking very close to what our projections were," Hirshfeld said.
According to Hirshfeld, the USPTO expects patent filings to rebound somewhat as the year progresses and that by the end of the fiscal year, the number of applications will end up being down 3% over the previous year as a result of the pandemic.
The office has done an analysis to see if any technologies have had a more significant decrease in patent filings due to the pandemic than others, but found that hasn't been the case.
"Obviously this can change as there are unknowns in front of us, but we are not seeing that any particular area was impacted differently than others," Hirshfeld said. "Rather, it seems that the decrease is somewhat across the board, rather than localized in any particular area."
The decline is not expected to have a significant impact on the USPTO's finances, he said.
"This pandemic is obviously a very unique situation and the impact on patents tends to lag the economy, so it's very hard to know what's in front of us," he said. "We're actively monitoring it, but with both filings and finances, we're tracking according to plan."
Later in the meeting, the USPTO's Chief Financial Officer Jay Hoffman said revenue collection at the agency appears to be in good shape. That is in part due to a fee increase that took effect in October, most notably for proceedings at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
"The bottom line is the forecast for patent revenues is holding up reasonably well," he said. "We'll see if it continues to hold up, but right now, this is great news."
Hirshfeld, who had previously served as commissioner for patents, also acknowledged that he expects to lead the USPTO on a temporary basis, until President Joe Biden can nominate a new director and that person is confirmed by the Senate.
"I'm very honored to be in the role, and I assure you all that I will give it my best to make sure that I'm putting this agency in the best position for when we do have political leadership come in," he said.
--Editing by Stephen Berg.
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