Lawmakers Are Right to Prioritize Diversity and Inclusion in Innovation
TLDR: A key Senate panel is holding a hearing tomorrow to discuss ways to improve diversity within the U.S. patent system. As entrepreneurs across the country call on the government to support more diversity in innovation, and with the country continuing to confront systemic inequities, policymakers must work to ensure that increasing diversity in innovation—both inside and especially outside the patent system—remains a central component of their work.
What’s Happening This Week: The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Intellectual Property Subcommittee is holding a hearing tomorrow morning to discuss steps that the federal government can take to improve access and inclusivity in the U.S. patent system. The hearing comes after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)—in consultation with the National Council for Expanding American Innovation (NCEAI)—solicited public feedback earlier this year on the topic of creating a national strategy for building more diverse and inclusive innovation ecosystems. In response to that call, 113 startups, entrepreneurs, investors, and support organizations sent a letter to USPTO offering suggestions for how federal officials can improve diversity in the country’s innovation ecosystems—including making government funding more equitable and incentivizing private investment in underrepresented founders. Engine also submitted comments to the agency in February calling on policymakers to mobilize toward increasing diversity and inclusion in innovation.
While policymakers must look beyond the patent system to fully address the unwarranted roadblocks that underrepresented founders face when launching a startup, this week’s hearing is an important step among other ongoing efforts to promote equity.
Why it Matters to Startups: Diversity is critical for innovation and entrepreneurship, and the startup ecosystem—along with the broader U.S. economy—benefits when these opportunities are available and accessible to everyone. As Engine noted in a letter to the Senate IP Subcommittee ahead of tomorrow’s hearing, “[d]iverse teams generate better economic results and often produce more innovation.” And diverse founders also bring unique perspectives to their work, developing new and innovative solutions that serve the needs of previously overlooked or marginalized communities. As policymakers work to combat systemic inequities and structural racism across America, they must work to ensure that the nation’s innovation ecosystems mirror the diversity of its people.
While policymakers will need to look outside the patent system to achieve those goals, the Senate IP Subcommittee should continue to focus on what it can do within its jurisdiction to advance diversity and inclusion. Members of the Subcommittee should use tomorrow’s hearing as an opportunity to explore legislative efforts and programs that can be strengthened to improve the patent system. Engine encourages policymakers to expand initiatives that equip underrepresented founders with the tools and resources they need. Existing laws, like the America Invents Act (AIA), created programs to help under-resourced innovators obtain high-quality patents and established regional offices to provide inventors and entrepreneurs with access to the USPTO’s resources. Policymakers should examine the law’s benefits, identify any weaknesses, and work to replicate its successes across the country. This may include expanding pro bono offerings to support under-resourced trademark applicants or expanding the reach of regional USPTO offices. Additionally, policymakers should also consider ways of collecting better demographic data sets—as proposed in the IDEA Act—to monitor diversity among patent owners.
The patent system also impacts a variety of stakeholders beyond patent applicants and owners, and, in thinking about diversity through the lens of the patent system, policymakers must remain cognizant of how their efforts will affect, for example, the broader startup ecosystem. That’s why it’s vital for lawmakers to examine and expand upon initiatives that are supporting underrepresented founders, while also remaining mindful of the variety of people—particularly customers, users, and other innovators—who do not interact directly with the patent system but still have a substantial stake in patent policy.
Beyond this focus on the patent system, policymakers should also consider a wide variety of steps to foster diverse and inclusive innovation. Merely by way of example, this should include eliminating disparities in federal grants and loans, funding entrepreneurial support organizations that focus on diverse founders, and improving the talent pipeline—to provide those from from underrepresented backgrounds with the STEM education they need to succeed and an environment that supports retention in innovation careers.
While we applaud recent steps by the federal government to examine ways of improving access and inclusivity in the U.S. patent system, this is just the beginning of conversations that must occur. As the coalition of startups, entrepreneurs, investors, and support organizations noted in their letter earlier this year, “increasing the number of U.S. patents is probably not the answer.” But tomorrow’s hearing—along with USPTO’s ongoing efforts to formulate a national strategy for creating more inclusive innovation ecosystems—are key steps towards advancing the goals of greater diversity and inclusion.
On the Horizon.
Join Engine this Thursday at noon ET for a virtual event to unveil our report with Startup Genome and the Charles Koch Institute on "The State of the Startup Ecosystem.” The report examines changes and trends in startup investment and exits over the last decade. The panel will discuss the report's findings as well as the importance of understanding the health of the U.S. startup ecosystem for sound policymaking. You can RSVP here.
The Wireless Infrastructure Association is holding its Connect (X): All Access Capital and Finance Summit beginning at 9 a.m. tomorrow.
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology is holding a hearing at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow to discuss ways of securing America’s network technology.
The High Tech Inventors Alliance is hosting an event on the U.S. Patent System: Challenges and Opportunities in 2021, tomorrow at noon ET. Experts will discuss how the patent office reviews low-quality patents, an increase in forum shopping, and a rise in patent litigation, as well as what the government can do to fix problems in the system. Register here.
