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Maybe this is a sign that there are too many patents.

The first U.S. patent was issued in 1790, signed by President George Washington. The current numbering system started 182 years ago. Which means 150 patents granted per day (400 a day in recent years). Is that a lot?

Dividing the total number of patents by 182 years masks some of the realities. Namely, there are significantly more patent grants in the past decade compared to any other. For example, 2015 had 325,979 patent grants, compared to 2005 with 157,718. There's a pretty clear trend, see https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/us_stat.ht....

That's a great resource. I notice there's a 31% jump from 1997 to 1998. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Street_Bank_%26_Trust_Co....

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