How do I get my data? 

Use this step-by-step tutorial using the publicly available Richardson Oliver Gender Analyzer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGz4ECVnT88&feature=youtu.be 

Why was the pledge created?

To improve diversity among inventorship in the United States by creating momentum among companies to commit to action, establish a data baseline, and work to improve their numbers for their chosen Underrepresented Inventor (URI) group.

What diversity attributes are considered?

Gender, race/ethnicity, veteran status, LGBTQ+, disabled

What patent documents?

Patent applications filed in the company’s fiscal year 2021-2022, not patents issued in that time period.

Do companies need to use their own inventor data? Or do they use the WIPO algorithm?

Companies can use either their own internal data or they can utilize publicly available algorithms/tools such as:

IBM’s Global Name Recognition system

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) worldwide gender-name dictionary

Richardson Oliver Gender Analyzer – a simple Excel tool for estimating the gender of the inventors on patents

Will a company’s human resources department need to be involved?

No.  You may obtain the data externally by using any of following three tools identified in the pledge to your inventor data you export from your patent management system:

IBM’s Global Name Recognition system

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) worldwide gender-name dictionary

Richardson Oliver Gender Analyzer – a simple Excel tool for estimating the gender of the inventors on patents

What about former employees?

Current employment status does not matter; person must have been employed by the company at the time of patent application filing and listed as an inventor on the patent application.  The patent application must have been assigned to the company at the time of filing, or currently assigned to the company.

Will the company’s data be kept confidential?

Yes. The metrics provided to Richardson Oliver Insights will be kept confidential and anonymous (i.e., no company will be linked to its submitted data).

Will the companies’ data be published?

Yes, but anonymously. The companies’ aggregate data will be published in Year 3 after pledge members have reported their numbers, but any publication will be limited to aggregate numbers only and will not link specific data to any submitting organization. There would be a list of participating company names, but no way to associate data points to particular companies.

What data is a company supposed to share?

By March 2024, please provide the following two metrics* to the United States Intellectual Property Alliance (USIPA) for the period FY 2021-2023;

Inventorship Rate for a specific URI group: (# of Unique Underrepresented Inventors on Patent Applications)/(Total # of Unique Inventors on Patent Applications)

Fractional Inventorship Rate for a specific URI group (e.g., average percentage of underrepresented inventors (URIs) per patent application in each calendar year): (% of URIs per Patent Application)/(Total # of Patent Applications)