Rochester Inventors Produce Innovative Patents Amidst Backlog at USPTO

Rochester inventors have produced a significant number of patents in recent years, with 527 patents issued in the first quarter of 2011 alone. Despite the backlog of over 700,000 patent applications at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the region has maintained a strong track record of innovation. Intellectual property attorneys Michael Hoffman and Spencer Warnick have compiled quarterly reports on patents issued in the Rochester and Capital region, highlighting the innovative work being done by local companies such as Xerox and Kodak.

Key Takeaways:

• The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has a backlog of over 700,000 patent applications, with it taking years to process an application.
• Rochester inventors produced 527 patents in the first quarter of 2011, with Kodak and Xerox producing a combined total of 345 patents.
• Xerox's patent estimate system allows customers to be billed for the actual amount of color in a document, rather than the entire document.
• The Xerox patent uses a modern computational technique to detect and correct photo errors, with the correction device built into the camera for automatic correction.
• Kodak's patent uses an algorithmic innovation to adjust and correct photo errors, with the method of correction detecting a set of lines in a captured digital image to determine a rotation angle.
• Establishing regional patent examination offices is a suggestion being considered by the USPTO to help clear up the backlog, with the Rochester area being a potential location due to its high number of patents issued per capita.
• Hoffman and Warnick's quarterly reports have highlighted the innovative work being done by local companies such as Xerox and Kodak, with their patent approval numbers remaining strong in recent quarters.

Statistics:

• 527: Number of patents issued by Rochester inventors in the first quarter of 2011.
• 700,000+: Backlog of patent applications at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
• 345: Combined total of patents produced by Kodak and Xerox in the first quarter of 2011.
• 5+: Number of years it took to approve Xerox's patent application.
• Over 50%: Percentage of documents billed for an entire color document, rather than the actual amount of color present.

Sources:

• Todd Etshman, The Daily Record
• United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
• Michael Hoffman and Spencer Warnick, intellectual property attorneys
• Bruce Graham, Kodak Corporate Research & Engineering Director of Communications
• Charlotte Baker, USPTO examiner.