The Patent Librarian: "U.S. Patent Counts, Jan. 1-Apr. 30, 2006Monday, May 01, 2006, 8:50:24 PM - Michael White
U.S. patent grants in March and April hovered around 4,000 patents per week except for a slight dip the week of March 12. A record-breaking (at least in recent years) 4,365 patents issued on April 25, surpassing published applications by 13. This was the first week in many, many months when the number of issued patents exceeded the number of published applications.
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