By Ken Datzman, Brevard Business News 05/28/2012
There are few government entities like the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Beyond Wall Street, it is the rooted center of the universe of American capitalism. The office receives patent applications from entrepreneurs and businesses at the rate of more than 450,000 a year, with the majority filed electronically.
Some 6,000 examiners, generally scientists and engineers, review the applications, of which more than 150,000 a year are approved for patents.
As far as who can file to protect their invention, the patient office specifies only that the subject must be “useful.” The USPTO has granted more than 8 million patents since 1790.
These patented inventions help power the economy, in a big, sweeping way. Intellectual–property–intensive industries today support at least 40 million jobs and contribute more that $5 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product, according to a U.S. Department of Commerce report
