By Donald Zuhn —

Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it had met or exceeded all of its goals for fiscal year 2011 (FY2011).  The most significant goal to be met on the patent side was the reduction of unexamined patent applications to 669,625, which constituted a five-year low and represented a 10% drop in the backlog since FY2009 when Director David Kappos took office.  The reduction in the application backlog was all the more impressive given an average annual increase in application filings of 5%.  Additional data regarding USPTO performance in FY2011 will be made available next month when the Office releases its annual performance and accountability report.