A while ago I posted the following table of average processing times for software patents, with the average for 1000 patents being 28 months. Some objected, saying that I did not take into account continuations and divisions. Well, I went back and analyzed the data, using a sub-sample of 360 patents, one third of the original sample. Of the 360 patents, 90 were either continuations or divisions, about 25%, which is at least 5% higher than for all ELECTRONICS patents. For the remaining 270 software patents with no continuations or divisions, the average processing time was 29 months, which is not much of a change. So the distribution and average I originally posted (see below) is not too far off the mark, at least for harmonization bickering. However, if you factor in the 90 continuation/division patents and start their clocks from the earliest filing date in the chain, then the average processing time for software patents shoots up to 34 months, close to three years. Here's the original data: 1000 US software patents from January 1994 to April 1994 were analyzed for the processing time from filing date to issuing date. 06-09 27 10-13 53 14-17 112 18-21 122 22-25 140 26-29 140 30-33 121 34-37 104 38-41 71 42-45 54 46-49 26 50-59 18 >60 12 Greg Aharonian Internet Patent News Service (for subscription info, send 'help' to patents@world.std.com) (for prior art search services info, send 'prior' to patents@world.std.com)