Women attorneys make up 12% of PTAB appearances
Despite 20-30% of registered patent attorneys being women, women make up only 12% of total attorney appearances in Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) proceedings, according to a new report from the PTAB Bar Association.
Released earlier this month, the report stated that of the more than 2,000 firms and entities that appear in PTAB proceedings, women made up 12% of total attorney appearances as of August 2021. This is a slight improvement on the 10% of appearances made as of March 2019.
Appearances have also increased minimally for the top 100 firms before the PTAB—as of August last year, women made up 13% of appearances, up from 11% in 2019.
What makes for even worse reading is that 1,498 of the more than 2,000 firms and entities appearing in PTAB proceedings have never had a woman appear for them.
Only eight women feature in the top 100 attorneys appearing in the most board proceedings, with Lori Gordon of Perkins Coie featuring in the top 10, with 257 appearances.
Turning to subject matter, for the top 100 biotech PTAB proceeding firms, women attorneys make up 25% of total attorney appearances. This number falls to 10% in the semiconductor field and 9% for computer science.
Of the top 100 parties appearing before the PTAB, Facebook, Pfizer, Allergan and WhatsApp have the highest percentage of women appear to represent them. Women have represented Facebook--which has had 132 proceedings before the PTAB—36% of the time.
The average percentage for the top 100 parties is 11%, and nine of the top 100 parties appearing before the PTAB have had no women appear to represent them.
The PTAB Bar Association has again urged for firm’s to include more women on their PTAB trial teams and improve the firm’s year-over-year average by just 1%. This is the same call to action issued by the association back in 2019, when it released its previous report on the topic.
The association also asked firms to identify at least one more woman for her first speaking role in a PTAB proceeding.
Less experienced advocates can benefit from the PTAB’s Legal Experience and Advancement Programme (LEAP), launched in early 2020 and aimed at fostering the development of the next generation of patent practitioners.
LEAP gives new practitioners additional argument time and is part of the US Patent and Trademark Office’s goal of offering legal experience and advancement to a diverse group of practitioners.
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