how many us patents are currently in force
As you can imagine, these conferences are filled with great unusual statistics; one of which is the number of US patents that are currently âin force.â In other words, of the millions of US patents that have issued, how many are currently enforceable? (i.e. in term and have had the requisite maintenance fees paid). Today I learned that the number of US patents in force is approximately 1.7 million! Thus, you only have to worry about infringing a possible 1.7 patents.