Article
Response to the Request for Comments and Notice of Public Hearings on the Report Required by the SUCCESS Act of 2018
SSRN
(2019)
Abstract
We the undersigned law students and law professor offer this response to the USPTO’s request for comments on studying and promoting the participation of underrepresented demographic groups in the U.S. patent system. We write based on personal and professional experiences in our own respective science and engineering fields and in the patent system, as well as based on our academic study of these issues. We appreciate the USPTO’s attention to the value of studying and promoting diversity in the patent system, especially through evidence-based policymaking.
For the reasons that follow, we believe the USPTO should, indeed, collect demographic information on patent inventors, do so at the time of application, and do so on a mandatory rather than voluntary basis in compliance with relevant laws and subject to proper safeguards. The USPTO should also play a central role among public and private institutions to promote the participation of women in patenting and entrepreneurial activities. We address questions 1–3, 5–8, and 10–11. Among the demographic groups of interest, we focus in particular on women.
Keywords
- patent,
- innovation,
- intellectual property,
- diversity,
- women,
- STEM,
- pipeline
Disciplines
Publication Date
2019
Citation Information
Saurabh Vishnubhakat, Alexandra Fuchs and Lora Elkins-Naismith. "Response to the Request for Comments and Notice of Public Hearings on the Report Required by the SUCCESS Act of 2018" SSRN (2019) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/saurabh_vishnubhakat/96/