We follow the prosecution histories of the 2.15 million new patent applications filed at the US Patent and Trademark Office between 1996 and 2005 to calculate patent allowance rates. 55.8% of the applications emerged as patents without using continuation procedures to spawn related applications....

The report offers both a new and comparative methodology for measuring backlogs and pendency, as well as empirical findings on the relationship between application stocks and examination pendency in the UK and the US. Understanding these relationships is critical for better evidence based policy...