I thought it might be interesting to take a handful of phrases, and see how many times (year-by-year) that they were mentioned in granted patents and published patent applications at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). I chose the following to look at: Internet, Search Engine, Algorithm, Google, and Yahoo!
The USPTO granted patents database allows full text searches from 1976, and the USPTO published patent applications database includes patent applications from 2001, so I was limited by those dates.
I also looked for the first mention of these phrases in the granted patents database. If the terms were first mentioned prior to 1976, I couldn’t search for those (so the first mention of “Algorithm” isn’t included here).
The first granted patent (1997) which mentions “Yahoo!” is one from IBM – Itinerary list for interfaces.
“Google” appears first in a granted patent (2001) presently listed as being assigned to Ask Jeeves, Inc. (purchased from Excellerate, LLC) – Search engine using indexing method for storing and retrieving data.
I found a first showing of a granted patent (1984) mentioning “Internet” being assigned to Telebit Corporation – Packetized ensemble modem.
The “search engine” numbers may be off – according to the Help section of the USPTO for patents, using quotation marks is supposed to return an exact match for a phrase. However, it doesn’t. The first listed patent includes the phrase “search for an engine” rather than just “search engine.” The third USPTO patent granted mentioning “search engine” and first to actually mean a “search engine” is Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.’s High speed intelligent distributed control memory system”. Not the kind of search engine that we are used to these days, though.
I would have liked to include the numbers from new patents filed each year, but those amounts aren’t accessible from the online USPTO databases.
USPTO Published Patent Applications (from 2001)
Mention “Internet”
2001 – 5,264 applications 2002 – 27,878 applications 2003 – 32,338 applications 2004 – 35,424 applications 2005 – 41,559 applications 2006* – 41,691 applications
Mention “Search Engine”
2001 – 290 applications 2002 – 1,463 applications 2003 – 1,383 applications 2004 – 1,483 applications 2005 – 1,918 applications 2006* – 2,004 applications
Mention “Algorithm”
2001 – 3,485 applications 2002 – 17,996 applications 2003 – 25,203 applications 2004 – 25,203 applications 2005 – 29,118 applications 2006* – 27,983 applications
Mention “Google”
2001 – 7 applications 2002 – 72 applications 2003 – 110 applications 2004 – 169 applications 2005 – 353 applications 2006* – 616 applications
Mention “Yahoo!”
2001 – 110 applications 2002 – 444 applications 2003 – 431 applications 2004 – 519 applications 2005 – 641 applications 2006* – 846 applications
USPTO Granted Patents (from 1976)
Mention “Internet”
1984 – 1 patent 1985 – 0 patents 1986 – 0 patents 1987 – 2 patents 1988 – 0 patents 1989 – 10 patents 1990 – 11 patents 1991 – 6 patents 1992 – 10 patents 1993 – 22 patents 1994 – 59 patents 1995 – 84 patents 1996 – 217 patents 1997 – 419 patents 1998 – 1,740 patents 1999 – 3,389 patents 2000 – 5,055 patents 2001 – 6,905 patents 2002 – 8,810 patents 2003 – 11,031 patents 2004 – 13,800 patents 2005 – 14,368 patents 2006* – 20,358 patents
Mention “Search Engine”
1988 – 1 patent 1989 – 0 patents 1990 – 2 patents 1991 – 3 patents 1992 – 2 patents 1993 – 7 patents 1994 – 8 patents 1995 – 12 patents 1996 – 16 patents 1997 – 39 patents 1998 – 110 patents 1999 – 266 patents 2000 – 303 patents 2001 – 371 patents 2002 – 452 patents 2003 – 570 patents 2004 – 629 patents 2005 – 597 patents 2006* – 842 patents
Mention “Algorithm”
1976 – 201 patents 1977 – 256 patents 1978 – 326 patents 1979 – 262 patents 1980 – 336 patents 1981 – 399 patents 1982 – 431 patents 1983 – 409 patents 1984 – 668 patents 1985 – 856 patents 1986 – 997 patents 1987 – 1,353 patents 1988 – 1,388 patents 1989 – 2,152 patents 1990 – 2,055 patents 1991 – 2,398 patents 1992 – 2,622 patents 1993 – 3,195 patents 1994 – 3,759 patents 1995 – 4,210 patents 1996 – 5,287 patents 1997 – 5,538 patents 1998 – 8,486 patents 1999 – 8,730 patents 2000 – 9,373 patents 2001 – 10,617 patents 2002 – 11,154 patents 2003 – 12,414 patents 2004 – 13,261 patents 2005 – 12,533 patents 2006* – 17,521 patents
Mention “Google”
2001 – 1 patent 2002 – 5 patents 2003 – 16 patents 2004 – 20 patents 2005 – 27 patents 2006* – 67 patents
Mention “Yahoo!”
1997 – 1 patent 1998 – 12 patents 1999 – 47 patents 2000 – 67 patents 2001 – 70 patents 2002 – 125 patents 2003 – 139 patents 2004 – 169 patents 2005 – 143 patents 2006* – 278 patents
- – Doesn’t include most of December, 2006.