Expanding Innovation

Read speech transcripts from USPTO leadership on topics of increasing diversity in innovation.

• Remarks by Deputy Director Laura Peter at Women’s History Month: Valiant Women of Yesterday and Today - March 5, 2020
• Remarks by Director Andrei Iancu at St. Louis Start-Up Week - November 4, 2019
• Remarks by Director Andrei Iancu at Bridging Innovation and Opportunity event -August 26, 2019
• Remarks by Director Andrei Iancu at the Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund Patent Event - May 22, 2019
• Remarks by Deputy Director Laura Peter at first public hearing on the SUCCESS Act - May 8, 2019
• Remarks by Director Andrei Iancu at Women’s History Month: Celebrating Women in Innovation event - March 5, 2019
• Remarks by Director Andrei Iancu at Driving American Innovation Policy Conference - February 25, 2019
• Remarks by Director Andrei Iancu at the American Bar Association's Women in IP Law Luncheon - April 20, 2018

This groundbreaking USPTO report shows that women still comprise a small minority of patent-holding inventors.

• Press release - USPTO releases updated study on participation of women in the U.S. innovation economy - July 21, 2020
• Report summary and webpage - Progress and Potential: 2020 update on U.S. women inventor-patentees - July 21, 2020

The SUCCESS Act directed the USPTO to prepare a report to Congress regarding statistics and data on intellectual property among women, minorities, and veterans.

• USPTO webpage - Study of Underrepresented Classes Chasing Engineering and Science Success (SUCCESS) Act of 2018
• Federal Register Notice - Request for Comments and Notice of Public Hearings on the Report Required by the Study of Underrepresented Classes Chasing Engineering and Science Success Act of 2018 - April 26, 2019
• USPTO press release - USPTO releases SUCCESS Act report to Congress” - October 31, 2019
• USPTO report to Congress - “SUCCESS Act” - October 2019 (PDF)

We publish articles and stories about the important contributions made by innovators from diverse backgrounds.

Articles

• "Celebrating women inventors” - USPTO article

Journeys of Innovation - stories of inventors and entrepreneurs

• "I’ll do it myself" - Josephine Cochran and the invention of the modern dishwasher
• "Thinking like the herd" - Temple Grandin and the importance of neurodiversity