Well the source is the USPTO - if you don't believe those who are actually making the decisions on the patents it seems like you may just not want to accept it.
If it were not a reliable source I would understand your point of contention with the data. However, if I ask McDonalds how many burgers they sold last year, and McDonalds looks at their data and gives me a number, its pretty silly to contest that isn't it?
I accept this at face value given the source is the USPTO
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