The USPTO's final data for fiscal year 2026 show 315,825 utility patents issued, a 3.8% decline from FY2025. About half of that drop is a calendar artifact: FY2025 had 53 Tuesdays, the day patents issue, while FY2026 had the usual 52. Even adjusting for that, the weekly issuance rate was about 2% lower.
The composition of grants also shifted. Continuing applications—continuations, divisionals, and CIPs—made up roughly 26% of FY2026 utility grants, down from 36% in FY2025. That is a major change in the mix of filings.
For the first time, fewer than 40% of issued utility patents had a first-named inventor claiming US residence. The data update also adds new breakdowns for published applications by origin and cross-border inventor teams.