Leveraging Open Data to Fuel American Innovation
Leveraging open data is a priority for the
Trump Administration, as part of its long-term commitment to modernize government and as a key driver of the American economy.
Recently, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced newly-released data giving the public new insights regarding the ins and outs of the patent process, while also providing the USPTO with more meaningful metrics so it can continue to efficiently issue high-quality patents.
“It’s been nearly impossible to unlock this valuable data effectively in the past, but by leveraging emerging technologies such as big data and machine learning, we are able to better serve our customers”, said the USPTO Chief Data Strategist Thomas A. Beach.
Data visualization
of the patent examination process
The
USPTO receives and reviews thousands of patent applications each year. Included
in these applications are mountains of scientific
knowledge. Today’s
release of the USPTO Patent Prosecution
Research Data: Unlocking Office Action & Citation Traits marks the first time
that comprehensive data on over 4.4 million office actions from the last several
years has been made readily available to the public. An “office action” is a
notification from a patent examiner to an applicant on whether their invention
is patentable, and why or why not. It includes information such as the grounds
for approval or rejection as well as the pertinent prior art, or in other
words, the relevant past inventions that have come before it as shown in the visualization
of the patent examination process (shown above).
By improving access to patent data, the public and
private sectors can be empowered to identify trends in technology and
innovation and open data can be freely and easily accessed, shared and
analyzed.
Analyzing and connecting government datasets can result
in useful insights for entrepreneurs and innovators, from assessing risks to
increasing sales.
Read more USPTO-specific posts on the Department of Commerce blog.
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