October 25, 2023 | less than a minute read

USPTO report on COVID-19 diagnostic patent applications

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Wil Holtz

Partner

Get in touch

Wil Holtz

Partner

Negative Covid-19 antigen test kit, one step coronavirus antigen rapid test, saliva swab, 1 test box with imagine of lungs, close up

Most of us have undergone some type of COVID-19 testing. This report on the origin and funding of COVID-19 diagnostic patent applications illustrates the great inventive activity of small companies and universities. It will be interesting to see which of these technologies are improvements over available diagnostic methods and are potentially adopted.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) Office of the Chief Economist released a report revealing that small companies and universities led the way in developing inventions to diagnose COVID-19, as evidenced by patent applications filed at the USPTO through April 2023. The U.S. federal government helped spur this invention, with 10.7% of COVID-19 diagnostic public filings receiving support. The National Institutes of Health provided the most assistance (about 64%), while the National Science Foundation provided the second most, at 21.59%. Although COVID-19 diagnostic invention was highly concentrated in a few technologies, 8.6% of these inventions were also applicable to the treatment of COVID-19.