Business Method Patents Data

Over the past few months I've been working with two very useful (and free) data sources for US patents that give some insight into firm-level patent data.

• COMETS [USPTO Patent Data from 1976-2010] (Zucker & Darby, 2011)
• NBER Patent Data Project [USPTO Patent Data from 1976-2006]

The chart below visualizes the lag time between application & award for USPTO Business Method (class 705) patents awarded through 2010 (Zucker & Darby, 2011). I'll post more firm-level data in the coming weeks.

Lynne G. Zucker and Michael R. Darby, COMETS Data Description, release 1.0, Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Center for International Science, Technology, and Cultural Policy, July 1, 2011.