The following table displays the calendar year along with the first corresponding document number issued in each year for selected patent document types (utility, design, plant, and reissue patents and statutory invention registrations) This table displays the calendar year along with the first corresponding document number issued in each year for selected patent document types (utility, design, plant, and reissue patents and statutory invention registrations)

(*) The current patent numbering system began with a patent issued on July 13, 1836. Prior to that date, 9,957 patents had been issued. Defensive Publications (T) and Improvement patents (AI) are not included in this table.

(**) Reissue patents were not separately numbered until 1838.

Some patent numbers, as displayed in the table, are 7 characters with the numeric portion padded with leading zeroes.

Some numbers within a series may be unused. Therefore, the number of patents granted during a year cannot be determined by simply subtracting the number of the first patent issued in one year from the number of the first patent issued in the next year. The user should note that the data in this table have been checked but that they still may not be completely devoid of errors.