Who chooses the patent number?

[Zack Lake]

Hi, apologies if I'm asking this in the wrong place, but I was wondering if anyone could enlighten me on how a patent comes to recieve the number that it does. Is it purely a matter of chronology? Or is it possible for someone who works with the processing of patents to deliberately hold back the publication of a certain patent so that it is given a more favourable number? Say, for instance, if I wanted the patent WO2020123456 or WO2020111111 could I request or possibly pay for the privilege of having that number?

Thanks
Zack

[Iustin]

The patent number is set chronologically , there is no pre calculated or preferential attribution of it.
Just out of the curiosity, how much would you willing to pay if WIPO would open up the possibility of choosing a preferred patent number from a given range.
Regards,

The PATENTSCOPE Team

[Zack Lake]

Thanks for the reply.

To be honest, I was curious about Microsoft's cryptocurrency/body activity patent being given the number W02020060606. Seems kind of spooky that a technology that resembles Revelations mark of the beast would be given the number 060606 by chance. I figured either Microsoft had deliberately paid for that specific number, or I wondered whether someone who processes the patents might have given it that number as a joke.