Facebook makes new pledge to increase gender parity in patenting
Facebook has committed to a new initiative aimed at increasing diversity within its workforce as part of the Increasing Diversity in Innovation conference which is being held this week, aiming to improve support for underrepresented inventors across the tech sector.
More than 25 major companies have taken a pledge to increase inventor diversity within their operations, ahead of the conference, which brings together leaders from the government, academia and the technology industry to discuss ways to support underrepresented inventors. The ‘Pledge to Increase Diversity in Inventorship’, signed up by the conference attendees, is a commitment from each organization to increase support for underrepresented inventors.
Beside this pledge, Facebook has also announced that it’s taking its efforts on this front a step further, with an expansion of its program aimed at achieving gender parity in patenting. The initiative focuses on spotlighting female inventors, increasing visibility of the patent process to women and better understanding the barriers they face.
“In addition to this, we’ve recently piloted small-group brainstorming sessions for women inventors and will be expanding these sessions to other groups of underrepresented inventors. We’ll also create a mentorship program of women supporting women through the patent process. We’ll publicly share metrics on Facebook inventors that identify as female in the coming year,” the company announced.
More than 25 major companies have signed up the pledge
Beside Facebook, some of the world’s largest companies – including Adobe, AT&T, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, P&G, and Uber – signed up to the US IP Alliance’s Diversity Pledge ahead of the virtual conference, being held in conjunction with UC Berkeley.
By signing the pledge, companies commit to a three-year plan to learn about one or more groups of underrepresented inventors and identify opportunities to promote equitable opportunities for those groups.
A growing amount of research has shown how women and members of minority groups are currently largely absent from the innovation process. Findings by the US Patent Office and leading researchers show that women, people of color and veterans are significantly underrepresented as US patent inventors.
The USPTO’s Progress and Potential report has found that women’s share of patenting activity in the US had only risen from around 5% to 12.1% in the 40 years up to 2016; and that since then had stalled even further, climbing to just 12.8% by 2019.
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