And that’s a positive indicator for women-owned businesses, report says.

An increasing number of women are obtaining U.S. patents — more than what’s been previously reported — and that’s a good sign for female entrepreneurs, the National Women’s Business Council says.

“Patent and trademark ownership often is an indicator of entrepreneurial activity – and historically, women have not been a large segment of this group,” NWBC Chair Donna James said. “A bump in IP ownership could indicate strong growth in women-owned companies.”

In 2010, the U.S. saw a 35 percent spike in the number of patents granted to women — 22,984 compared to the 17,061 approved in 2009.

And 2009’s numbers represented a 4.5 percent increase over 2008. In fact, the NWBC said, the trend toward women-held patents has been increasing over the last several decades.

The NWBC commissioned a study of U.S. patents granted between 1975 and 2010 because the federal government didn’t ask patent applicants about their gender during that time. 

“NWBC actively sought out this study because little research has specifically examined women business owners and intellectual property,” James said.

Researchers were able to track the number of women who sought and obtained patents over that 35-year span by looking at the names on the applications. They used lists of the most common names in Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Indian, Korean and other languages to help determine an applicant’s gender.

They were unable to learn an applicant’s gender in less than 6 percent of cases.

New legislation means the patent office will be able to track the gender of applicants from now on.

The results of the study are preliminary. The NWBC plans to release a full report, including information on women and trademarks, in early March, which is Women’s History Month.

The NWBC is a nonpartisan federal advisory council that makes recommendations to the president, Congress and the Small Business Administration.