Message From Janet Gongola, Patent Reform Coordinator: Request for Public Comments on Methods to Study Diversity of Patent Applicants

The America Invents Act requires the USPTO to establish methods for studying the diversity of patent applicants.  In March 2012, the USPTO mapped out an step-wise approach for doing so.   As a first step, we shared our public USPTO patent data with the Census Bureau to obtain demographic information for patent applicants who previously filed applications with the Office during a select time period.

Now, as a second step, the agency is seeking public feedback about how effective different approaches would be for collecting diversity information from patent applicants in the future and what information would be appropriate to collect.  Written comments are due by January 31, 2014.  To read the USPTO’s full request for information, including how to provide comments, click here.

Once the agency has reviewed all input collected from the first match with Census data and the request for information, we will decide what further steps to take to be able to accurately describe patent applicant diversity information consist with the AIA.;

Posted at 06:05PM Dec 05, 2013 in Congressional Testimony  |