Gender Diversity in the Patent Bar, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 67 (2014)

Authors

Saurabh VishnubhakatFollow

Citations to This Work

• Peter Lee, Toward A Distributive Agenda for U.S. Patent Law, 55 Hous. L. Rev. 321 (2017)

Abstract

This article describes the state of gender diversity across technology and geography within the U.S. patent bar. The findings rely on a new gender-matched dataset, the first public dataset of its kind, not only of all attorneys and agents registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, but also of attorneys and agents on patents granted by the USPTO. To enable follow-on research, the article describes all data and methodology and offers suggestions for refinement. This study is timely in view of renewed interest about the participation of women in the U.S. innovation ecosystem, notably the provision of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act directing the USPTO to study diversity, including gender diversity, among patent applicants, and of related research by the National Women’s Business Council on usage of the U.S. patent and trademark systems by U.S.-based female entrepreneurs. Analysis of gender data on the patent bar complements these studies and begins to provide a more complete picture of diversity in the U.S. patent system.

Recommended Citation

Saurabh Vishnubhakat, Gender Diversity in the Patent Bar, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 67 (2014)