On November 18, 2022, Santa Clara Law’s High Tech Law Institute convened the first Innovator Diversity Pilots Conference, co-organized by the USPTO and Professors Margo Bagley from Emory Law and Colleen Chien of Santa Clara Law School.
In attendance were intellectual property and diversity, equity, and inclusion pioneers ranging from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Harvard University, Emory School of Law, Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner, Meta, the Intellectual Property Owners Association, and more! Read more and see some of the media coverage from the event.
The program was recorded and the videos and accompanying slides can be found here.
Some highlights:
– Discussion of effective diversity practices at the USPTO, in increasing retention and worker performance through affinity groups, during Session 1: Getting People off the Bench – Inventor Diversity Pilots. (video) (slides) (see resources at https://www.uspto.gov/initiatives/equity (right hand column), and also reducing gender disparities in patenting through pro se supports, during Session 3: Innovator Diversity Policy Pilots (video) (slides): https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4265093 and economic note: https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/oce-ip-econ-note-102.pdf
– USPTO Director Kathi Vidal’s keynote, on the wide variety of inclusive initiatives that the PTO has undertaken and plans, from the Women’s Entrepreneurship (WE) initiative to the Council for Inclusive Innovation (CI²). In December, Congress passed the Leahy Unleashing American Innovators Act to create a new southeast regional office and community outreach offices, reduce fees for small inventors, and pilot approaches for bolstering inclusive innovation; read Director Vidal’s blog post on this and other inclusive innovation initiatives.
– Announcement of a number of new initiatives to support rigorous pilots to support science policy at the state and national level (see: JPAL initiative and the work of the Meta Science Working group: https://metasciencepolicy.org), discussed during The Why and How of Innovator Diversity Pilots (video) (slides)
– John List’s powerful keynote address about the lessons his life’s work implementing field experiments can bring to understanding the nature of diversity challenges and scaling impactful diversity practices, drawn from his book, the Voltage Effect. Piloting for Scale – the Voltage Effect (video)
– Pilot pitches to the USPTO and others on ideas including double attribution, a study of diversity at the USPTO, adapting the Diversity Pledge to the academy, and a Law and Technology Pipeline Consortium during Session 4: Let’s Pilot Together! (video)
– The launch of the Diversity Pilots Initiative, and discussion of assorted pilots in companies and other settings testing opt-out/opt-in, inventor identity, social network, and other practices for building invention capital, awareness, and participation during Session 1: Getting People off the Bench – Inventor Diversity Pilots (video) (slides) and Session 4: Let’s Pilot Together! (video) (slides)(slides)
– Discussion of what law firms and legal educators have been doing, to increase diversity in the profession, and what we know so far about what works, and doesn’t. Session 5: Diversity in the Profession and Pipeline , chaired by Caren Ulrich Stacey (USPTO) (video)
– And the announcement of a conference in Emory Law School in Atlanta 2024! Watch this space and we will alert you when registration opens up.