Access to IPR

The United Stated Patents and Trademark Office undertook a randomized control trial to assess the value that could be provided by increasing guidance and information for inventors, especially women, about patents.

Women are more likely to enter the patent system through small and micro entities, which do not have legal patent support or advice, therefore providing additional guidance can aid women in patenting their inventions, subsequently closing the gender gap in patenting. The Pro Se Pilot Examination Unit was able to increase all women’s likelihood of receiving a patent by 16.8 percentage points.

Click here to read more.

Innovation Council’s Jennifer Brant will join other stakeholders from the global IP community to discuss the challenges faced by young, female innovators in the health sector and to offer suggestions as to how the community can best support their endeavours. To participate, register here. 

Invent Together is a coalition of organizations, universities, companies, and other stakeholders dedicated to understanding the diversity gaps in invention and patenting. It aims to support public policy and private initiatives working to close the diversity gap. They have been supporting the adoption of the Inventor Diversity for Economic Advancement (IDEA) Act, which would require the USPTO to collect data on inventors’ demographic data on a voluntary basis and make this information available in the aggregate for research.

The IDEA Act has recently passed the House as part of the America COMPETES Act. As the House and Senate negotiate a compromise, Invent Together is calling for Congress to keep the IDEA Act in the final version sent to President Biden’s office.

Invent Together has written a sign-on letter urging congressional leadership to keep the IDEA Act in the final innovation and competition bill which can be found here.

The L2Pro (Learn to Protect) India IP e-learning platform aims to educate start-ups, MSMEs, and innovators on protection and enforcement of their intellectual property. As an e-learning platform, the course is divided into three different levels. The basic level provides an overview of the intellectual property landscape in India. The intermediate and the advanced levels deal in detail with the more sophisticated concepts of protecting, managing, and commercializing IP, funding, the role of IP tech-standards, and IP dispute settlement. Innovation Council member Qualcomm provided the seed money for L2Pro, which was initially launched in Germany and the UK.