'Sluggish' growth in women inventor numbers: USPTO
Women inventors still make up just 12% of all patent inventors in the US, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
This was one of a number of key findings in a new report, published yesterday, February 11, on the “trends and characteristics” of women inventors.
The report, analysed US patents granted from 1976 through to 2016.
“It is important for the United States to broaden its innovation ecosphere demographically, geographically, and economically,” said Andrei Iancu, under secretary of commerce for IP and director of the USPTO.
“The USPTO will continue to push the national dialogue on this issue and do what we can to spur real change”, he added.
Despite the “sluggish” growth in the number of women inventors overall, the number of patents with at least one woman listed as an inventor has increased from 7% in the 1980s to 21% in 2016.
The rate of women inventors in patents remains below the share of women working in science and engineering industries, the report found. Women made up 28% of the workforce in these sectors in 2015.
“Gains in female participation in science and engineering occupations and entrepreneurship are not leading to broad increases in female inventors earning a patent”, the USPTO warned.
The report also found that women inventors remain confined to areas in which women “have traditionally patented”, rather than breaking into male-dominated sectors.
Women accounted for 25% of inventors named on patents related to biotechnology, 23% in pharmaceuticals and 21% in organic fine chemistry.
In mechanical engineering, however, where the USPTO said patent inventors are “the most disproportionately male”, women inventors made up just 8% of the total figure from 2007 to 2016. This was an increase from just 3% in the 1980s.
“We look forward to working with industry, academia, and other government agencies to identify ways to increase the number of women inventors in all sectors of our economy”, said Laura Peter, deputy director of the USPTO.
The report used data obtained from PatentsView, a data resource supported by the USPTO.
World IP Review is conducting a survey of gender equality in the IP industry as part of our upcoming WIPR Influential Women in IP project. To take part in the survey, click here.
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