The final patent numbers for 2007 are in.

A total of 903 patents were granted to Utah inventors in 2007, a decrease of 4.3 percent from the 944 patents granted to Utahns in 2006. However, the 2007 patent-grant total is still the third-highest total to Utahns in history, trailing only the 2006 total and the 2001 total of 917 patents.

The total number of patents granted by the U.S. Patent Office also dropped a bit in 2007 as well. The office granted 182,951 patents in 2007, down 6.9 percent from the 196,441 patents it granted in 2006. However, the 2007 total exceeds substantially the 2005 total of 157,882.

Patent grants to Utahns had climbed steadily each year in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when Utahns were typically granted about 200 patents annually. From 1988, a year in which Utah inventors garnered 292 patents, Utahns' patent numbers increased annually until 2002, a span that involved sometimes dramatic annual increases reaching as high as 35 percent in some years.

Seventeen patents were awarded to Utah inventors on Jan. 1 of this year.

• Fine-grained fill reinforcing apparatus and method. Arthur L. Moss, Logan. Assigned to Mega Inc., Logan. Filed Aug. 28, 2006, a continuation of Patent No. 7,097,390, filed June 16, 2005. Patent No. 7,314,336.

• Pressurized fluid bladeless turbine engine with opposing fluid intake assemblies. Neldon P. Johnson, Salem. Assigned to N.P. Johnson Family Limited Partnership, Salem. Filed Oct. 7, 2004. Patent No. 7,314,347.

• Method for separating particulate matter from a fluid stream. Kevin E. Collier, Kaysville. Assigned to Econova Inc., Salt Lake City. Filed May 30, 2006, claiming priority to multiple prior patent applications. Patent No. 7,314,441.

• Dental compositions having anti-stokes up converters and methods of use. Dan Loveridge, Sandy. Assigned to Ultradent Products Inc., South Jordan. Filed Feb. 25, 2005. Patent No. 7,314,610.

• Obesity gene and use thereof. Steven Stone, Sandy; Donna M. Shattuck, Deanna L. Russell, Victor Abkevich, Steven Hunt, all of Salt Lake City. Assigned to Myriad Genetics Inc. and the University of Utah, both of Salt Lake City. Filed Sept. 3, 2003, claiming priority to multiple prior patent applications. Patent No. 7,314,713.

• Phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) taste receptor. Dennis Drayna, Potomac, Md.; Un-Kyung Kim, Gaithersburg, Md.; Mark Leppert, Salt Lake City. Assigned to the United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. Filed July 19, 2002, claiming priority to multiple prior patent applications. Patent No. 7,314,725.