Innovation Diversity Pledge Update – by USIPA
In July of 2021, the United States Intellectual Property Alliance (USIPA) launched The Diversity Pledge, which encouraged companies to use patent data as a way to visualize who is participating in their innovation and inventorship processes and more importantly who…
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Why Diversity, Equity And Inclusion Is The Need Of The Hour – by Forbes
Nish Parikh Forbes Councils Member Forbes Human Resources Council Corporate initiatives to foster an inclusive workplace — or what has come to be known as diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) — have been steadily growing in recent years. Earlier, DE&I…
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Do Your Global Teams See DEI as an American Issue? – by HBR
“Diversity and inclusion are an American problem; we don’t have this issue here.” I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard this from non-U.S.-based employees of global companies. I’ve also lost count of the number of times I’ve…
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Diversity Pledge companies now number more than 50 – by IAM
Suzanne Harrison and Bowman HeidenWelcome to Inclusivity Insights – a new monthly feature in which companies will share stories, learnings, and experiences of their D&I journey related to IP and innovation with the IAM audience. To introduce the series, Suzanne Harrison and…
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Diversity Woes in Patent Field Lead Lawyers to Try New Ideas – Blooomberg Law
Braxton Davis and Jeremiah Chan have heard the complaint from law firms with patent specialties for years: The firms want to hire diverse candidates, but qualified women and racial minorities are hard to find. So when Davis joined Chan’s patent…
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Why don’t we build diverse teams if we know they’re better? – by Jeremiah Chan
A few days ago, former Miami Dolphins football coach, Brian Flores, sued the National Football League (NFL) and three teams alleging discrimination in the course of his interview processes with two teams and his termination by Miami. Among the allegations…
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How this 22-year-old founder turned his college career struggle into a jobs platform for HBCU students – CNBC
Before recent increased DEI efforts led companies to directly partner with schools, many HBCU students struggled to find job opportunities that aligned with their career goals. It’s an experience that Bilal Issifou knows well — after finding himself at an internship he…
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Lack of diversity in patent holders means ‘half of the population’ isn’t getting needs met, economist Lisa Cook says – original article by MarketWatch
The Value Gap is a MarketWatch Q&A series with business leaders, academics, policymakers and activists on reducing racial and social inequalities. Innovation holds the promise of economic prosperity for emerging inventors — but for some, seeing their idea come to fruition…
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The Unintended Consequences of Diversity Statements – HBR
Pro-diversity messages are everywhere, whether you’re searching for a job, playing soccer, or watching the Oscars. Their point is simple: Diversity is good and we need more of it. In the business world, for example, we know that more-diverse groups tend to…
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Riitta Katila: How diversity drives innovation – Stanford Engineering
An expert in entrepreneurship argues that greater diversity is the key to corporate creativity. When Riitta Katila looks at old photos or movies about the space program of the 1960s, she sees one common thread among the people depicted there — homogeneity.…
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“Smart women, male genius” – The Documentary Podcast (BBC)
Five hundreds years ago a Spanish physiologist declared that genius was stored in the testicles. Even today, studies have shown that people associate men with genius more than women. Award-winning science writer and broadcaster Angela Saini wants to know why.…
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How the Best Bosses Interrupt Bias on Their Teams- by HBR
Companies spend millions on antibias training each year. The goal is to create workforces that are more inclusive, and thereby more innovative and more effective. Studies show that well-managed diverse groups outperform homogeneous ones and are more committed, have higher…
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Women in the Workplace 2021 – McKinsey report
The state of women hangs in the balance A year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic, women have made important gains in representation, and especially in senior leadership. But the pandemic continues to take a toll. Women are now…
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Paralympian Rory Cooper drives innovation for people with disabilities
Dr. Rory Cooper is the founder and director of the Human Engineering Research Labs (HERL) at the University of Pittsburgh and Department of Veteran Affairs in the United States. From ergonomic push rims (a patented technology that reduces upper extremity pain and…
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Gender And Racial Diversity in Invention and Patenting
A discussion of the latest research on biases and obstacles keeping women in out of inventorship and how copmanies and academia can eliminate them. With Elyse Shaw, IWPR. This is from a session at the 2021 Increasing Diversity in Innovation…
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Reaching Diverse Inventors Using Brainstorm Techniques
Reaching Diverse Inventors Using Brainstorm Techniques panel with: Saadia SaifuddinIP Analytics and Strategy, Cisco Ahsan ShaikhHead of Patent Prosecution, McDermott Will & Emery Michelle MartinezSenior Patent and Open Source Counsel, eBay This is from a session at the 2021 Increasing…
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Once you get your data, now what?
Data – Lessons learned from the front lines on how to establish your baseline, how to analyze your data for anomalies and/or bias and where to focus your first efforts. Panel with: Robert PechmanChief IP Counsel, Seagate Technology LLC Jason…
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Catalyzing the Transformation of STEM Women into New Inventors
Research – “Mapping the Regions, Organizations and Individuals that Drive Inclusion in the Innovation Economy” with Mercedes Delgado. This is from a session at the 2021 Increasing Diversity in Innovation conference that took place on July 26-29, 2021. The conference…
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Inventor diversity data – how to get it and what metrics to use
How can companies easily get their baseline data? Panel with: Erik OliverPartner, Richardson Oliver Law GroupDavid AndrewsChief Data and Analytics Officer, IP Solutions, AonSamantha HsuSenior Counsel, IP, Uber Technologies, Inc. This is from a session at the 2021 Increasing Diversity…
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Patent inequality – a research perspective with Michael Schuster
An overview of academic research in diversity & Inclusion and how it relates to companies. This is from a session at the 2021 Increasing Diversity in Innovation conference that took place on July 26-29, 2021. The conference was hosted by…
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Why diversity in innovation matters – a CEOs view with Deb Liu of Ancestry.com
Fireside chat with Deb Liu, CEO of Ancestry.com Moderator: Ray Millien This is from a session at the 2021 Increasing Diversity in Innovation conference that took place on July 26-29, 2021. The conference was hosted by UC Berkeley Fung Institute…
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Diversity Pilots Clearinghouse – Colleen Chien
How can companies, academics and non-profits work together to promote change in the innovation ecosystem? This is from a session at the 2021 Increasing Diversity in Innovation conference that took place on July 26-29, 2021. The conference was hosted by…
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In Times of Anxiety, Lead With ‘We’ and ‘Us’
Behavioral insights from employee feedback can help organizations identify and drive new, data-informed priorities. Pervading nearly every facet of our personal and professional lives, the impact of COVID-19 is made worse by the fact that there is no playbook for…
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Science Career Ads Are Disproportionately Seen by Men
Marketing algorithms prevent many women from seeing the advertising, even though it’s illegal to target jobs to one gender. Women see fewer advertisements about entering into science and technology professions than men do. But it’s not because companies are preferentially…
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More than 25 major companies take innovation diversity pledge
Diversity in innovation, invention and patenting has emerged as a major area of policy and corporate focus. A new initiative and a major online event are designed to keep the momentum going […] Read the full article here. Authors: Joff…
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Gender differences in obtaining and maintaining patent rights
An examination of the prosecution and maintenance histories of approximately 2.7 million US patent applications indicates that women have less favorable outcomes than men. Full article available here. Authors: Jyle Jensen, Balazs Kovacs and Olav Sorenson Published by Nature Biotechnology…
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Tackling the Gender and Racial Patenting Gap to Drive Innovation
This report compiles existing data on women and patenting. It explores both women’s underrepresentation among patent holders and their relative success in being granted patents when they apply for them. The report identifies the technology classes that women are most…
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Creating Fertile Ground for Innovation – a Guide to Fostering Innovation from Within
There is a parable in the Bible called “The Parable of the Sower”. The parable describes a “sower”, who casts seeds into various places. Some take root and others don’t. What causes some to flourish while others fail to grow…
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Mapping the Regions, Organizations and Individuals That Drive Inclusion in the Innovation Economy
Innovation is essential for economic growth, prosperity and social progress. However, there is strong evidence of persistent inequality and exclusion of women in the US innovation economy. We develop a framework to map the inventor (patentee) gender gap and identify…
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Addressing gender and racial disparities in the U.S. labor market to boost wages and power innovation
Allowing people to pursue their talents and interests is essential to individual well-being, but it also is a crucial part of any market economy. U.S. laws and society too often limit people from developing their potential, harming those individuals and…
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Equity in Innovation – Women Inventors and Patents
This report compiles existing data on women and patenting. It explores both women’s underrepresentation among patent holders and their relative success in being granted patents when they apply for them. The report identifies the technology classes that women are most…
Learn moreAn Empirical Study of Patent Grant Rates as a Function of Race and Gender
In this article, we examine the rate at which patent applications are granted as a function of the inventor’s race and gender. Empirical analysis of more than 3.9 million United States applications finds minority and women applicants are significantly less…
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Uncovering the “hidden figures” of innovation
Women remain woefully under-represented among IP-owning inventors. Facebook and 3M provide exclusive insight into what they are doing to boost female innovation – strategies from which other companies could benefit. Authors: Suzanne Harrison, Charu Kurani, Jeremiah Chan and Sandra Nowak…
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How Lenovo is deploying patent data to support its diversity and inclusion efforts
Lenovo’s IP team is conducting a data-driven deep-dive into inventorship as part of the company’s diversity and inclusion (D&I) focus. It’s not just the right thing to do, IP head John Mulgrew says — it will also help bolster the…
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Open source practices to support in-house innovation
Open source dominates the software industry and, by its very nature, appears to be at odds with IP protection. As open source packages continue to grow in popularity, in-house counsel should be aware of the pitfalls of their use and…
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Measuring diversity in invention and patenting is easier said than done
Stakeholders across the IP community are keen to increase diversity in their ranks but, as Suzanne Harrison and Erik Oliver explain, even the most sophisticated companies face a challenge in building a full picture of precisely who is participating in…
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The Diversity Pledge was designed to facilitate collaboration among corporations who collectively represent the largest filers of patents. Pledgees include over 40 companies spanning a variety of industries including consumer products, telecommunications, social media, software, finance and biologics among others. We hope many more companies join the founding pledgees to make actionable and measurable change in increasing diversity in innovation with their current employee base.
Contact
Suzanne Harrison
USIPA, Diversity & Inclusion
Bowman Heiden
UC Berkeley Fung Institute
Karla Soler Riba
Center for Intellectual Property (CIP)
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