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Proposed legislation aimed at closing the gap that women and minorities face when procuring patent rights could direct the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to collect demographic data from applicants and make this public.
US Senators Thom Tillis,
Mazie Hirono and US representatives Nydia Velázquez and Steve Stivers
introduced the Inventor Diversity for Economic Advancement (IDEA) Act of
2021 on March 9.
The IDEA Act is cosponsored by Senators Chris
Coons and Patrick Leahy. The same coalition of senators and US
representatives first unveiled the IDEA Act in 2019.
If passed,
the bill could require the USPTO to issue reports on the data collected
and make this available to the public, allowing external researchers to
conduct their own analyses and offer insights into the various patent
gaps in society.
Women and minorities apply for and obtain
patents at significantly lower rates than their male, white
counterparts, argued Senator Tillis when launching the 2021 bill.
According
to the USPTO, only 22% of US patents list at least one woman as an
inventor and a 2019 study by the UK intellectual Property Office
revealed that women make up only 13% of all inventors worldwide.
African
American and Hispanic college graduates apply for patents at
approximately half the rate of their white counterparts, a study by the
National Academy of Inventors confirmed in 2018.
“We must work to
close this gap to ensure all Americans have the opportunity to
innovate, and I am proud to reintroduce this bipartisan, bicameral
legislation to get a better understanding of the background of
individuals who apply for patents with the USPTO,” said Tillis.
“Our
nation is home to millions of inventors—and we must do more to
encourage women and minorities to secure patent rights. To keep leading
in technological innovation, we must harness the potential of all
Americans,” said Senator Hirono.
“The IDEA Act will give us
insight into what policies we can implement to support underrepresented
groups in applying for patents, and help policymakers address these
inequalities.”
“The reintroduction of the IDEA Act is a crucial
step toward ensuring that our nation’s inventors have equal access to
our innovation ecosystem, regardless of gender, race, or income,” Holly
Fechner, executive director of Invent Together, said.
For too
long, researchers have used names and zip codes as proxies for gender,
race, and income to study the diversity gaps in patenting, noted Nicole
Mason, president and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
“The IDEA Act will provide us with the information needed to better
understand and address the patent disparities among women, people of
colour, and other underrepresented groups.”
“As America’s leading
research universities know, the best science requires all the best
minds available, and the innovation economy that stems from
university-based research grows faster when all inventors have access to
markets for their innovations,” said Association of American
Universities president Barbara Snyder.
The Act, she said, will provide tools to create more equitable pathways to support inventors of all backgrounds.
Source:www.worldipreview.com
Editor:IPRdaily-Vapor