WIPR survey: Readers aware of lack of female inventors

WIPR readers have said they are aware of the concerns outlined by the director of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that there are too few female inventors named on patents granted by the office.

Responding to WIPR’s most recent survey, 62% of readers said they were aware of the problem.

In a speech given to the Million Women Mentors summit and published on the USPTO website on September 21, Lee said: “Women are underrepresented as inventors listed on patents, a disparity that I see clearly as the first woman director of the USPTO.”

The Million Women Mentors is an organisation dedicated to encouraging women to enter into science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers.

In her speech, Lee, who became the USPTO’s first female director earlier this year, cited a 2012 study published by the Women’s Business Council that said women were listed as inventors on just 18% of all patents granted by the USPTO in 2010.

She continued: “Two of the professional areas in which women are the least represented are computer science and electrical engineering ... [and] the story is much the same across the board for women in STEM fields.

“That story is not acceptable.”

Later this year the USPTO will host the Gender Gap in Patenting event, which will focus on how to improve the representation of women inventors listed on patent filings.

But despite the majority of readers being aware of Lee’s concerns, one respondent said: “This concern is not a core issue because it is a result of other issues.”

For this week’s survey we ask: “At the CIPA Congress last week delegates were told that artificial intelligence will soon disrupt jobs and practices in the intellectual property profession, including prior art searches. Are you worried?”