Free, online 2022 Black Innovation and Entrepreneurship program February 17 and 24

 

Coming next week: Free, online 2022 Black Innovation and Entrepreneurship program February 17 and 24

Are you a current or aspiring inventor or entrepreneur? Would you like to learn from successful innovators and subject matter experts about keys to success and how to use your creativity to reach your full potential? If so, be sure to attend the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) free, online 2022 Black Innovation and Entrepreneurship program on February 17 and 24. Don’t miss these great opportunities to be inspired and informed.

Register and learn more about the February 17 event, “Defining tomorrow,”  where you’ll learn firsthand from successful innovators about networking, strategy, and securing funding for a business. Special guests include:

• Janet Emerson Bashen, CEO, Bashen Corporation
• Morgan DeBaun, Founder and CEO, Blavity Inc.
• Lanny Smoot, Disney Research Fellow, Imagineer. Mr. Smoot is also featured in this month's Journeys of Innovation: As if by magic.
• Stacy Spikes, Founder and CEO, Urbanworld Film Festival & PreShow, Co-founder, MoviePass

Register and learn more about the February 24 event, “Invest in ideas,” where you’ll learn how your creative spark can help build generational wealth. Special guests include:

• Ebonique Boyd, Co-founder of Budget Collector, art-tech entrepreneur, and nonprofit leader
• Stacy Brown-Philpot, Founding member of SoftBank’s Opportunity Fund, former CEO of TaskRabbit, investor, advisor
• Tani Chambers, Founder & CEO of RAVN
• James Howard, Executive Director, Black Inventors Hall of Fame

This program is presented by the USPTO’s Office of Innovation Outreach. For more information, please contact BlackInnovation@uspto.gov.

The USPTO offers many informative presentations, panels, and chats throughout the year. For more information, visit www.uspto.gov.

2021 Hispanic Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program

USPTO Alert

Attend the 2021 Hispanic Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program

Hispanic innovation and entrepreneurship

Don’t miss the United States Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) 2021 Hispanic Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program on Wednesday, October 13, from 1–4 p.m. ET. This free event is a great chance for independent inventors, entrepreneurs, small business owners, and intellectual property (IP) professionals to learn about resources available to the Hispanic innovation community.

Register early for this special online event: https://www.eventbrite.com/.../2021-hispanic-innovation...

Take this opportunity to:

Hear from a successful inventor about how IP can be a key to your success.

Learn about building networks in your community and finding mentors.

Discover USPTO resources for inventors and entrepreneurs.

View the agenda on the USPTO website: https://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/general-help/2021-hispanic-innovation-and-entrepreneurship-program?utm_campaign=subscriptioncenter&utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=

This program is presented by the Office of Innovation Outreach. For more information, please contact InnovationOutreach@USPTO.gov.

USPTO Executive Speaking Engagements for the week of December 7

Tuesday, December 8 (7-9 a.m. ET) 
USPTO Director Andrei Iancu
Trilateral (USPTO, Japan Patent Office, European Patent Office) Meeting
Role of the Trilateral Offices

Tuesday, December 8 (1:45-2:45 p.m. ET) 
USPTO Director Andrei Iancu
Washington State University faculty and students
Expanding American innovation

Tuesday, December 8 (3:30-4:30 p.m. ET) 
USPTO Director Andrei Iancu
University of North Dakota faculty and students
Expanding American innovation

Wednesday, December 9 (9 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET)
USPTO Deputy Director Laura Peter
Center for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Patent Analysis
Artificial Intelligence in IP

Thursday, December 10 (12-1:40 p.m. ET) 
USPTO Director Andrei Iancu
Center for Intellectual Property (IP) Forum (and the Berkeley-Stanford APLI)
Role of IP, AI, and COVID

Thursday, December 10 (2:15-3:15 p.m. ET) 
USPTO Director Andrei Iancu
Design Law 2020 Symposium
U.S. Design Rights and protection

Friday, December 11 (1-2 p.m. ET) 
USPTO Director Andrei Iancu
Licensing Executives Society (LES), D.C. Chapter
Importance of IP, intellectual property rights, and NCEAI

Friday, December 11 (3-4 p.m. ET) 
USPTO Director Andrei Iancu
Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty and students
Expanding American innovation

All events to be held in a virtual format. Events open to the public are noted with a link. Other events are shared for advisory purposes only. Follow our social media to stay up-to-date with highlights from these engagements and others. Questions from the media can be directed to Press Secretary Paul Fucito at Paul.Fucito@uspto.gov.

USPTO releases updated study on participation of women in the U.S. innovation economy

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today released “Progress and Potential: 2020 Update on U.S. Women Inventor-Patentees,” a follow-up to its 2019 report on U.S. women inventors. The new report updates the previous findings based on a review of an additional nearly one million issued patents and three years of new data, and it provides further insights into the participation of women in America’s intellectual property systems.

The report's numerous findings include:

• More women are entering and staying active in the patent system than ever before.
• The number of patents with at least one woman inventor increased from 20.7% in 2016 to 21.9% by the end of 2019.
• The “Women Inventor Rate”–the share of U.S. inventors receiving patents who are women–increased from 12.1% in 2016 to 12.8% in 2019.
• The share of women among new inventors on issued patents increased from 16.6% in 2016 to 17.3% by 2019.
• The gender gap in the number of women inventors who remain active by patenting again within five years is decreasing. For the most recent group of new inventors, 46% of women patented again in the next five years versus 52% of men.
• Among the leading patent filers, the 3M Company showed the largest improvement in the participation of women inventor-patentees: Their average increased from 15.2% over 2007- 2016 to 16.6% for 2007-2019.  

“This report is a great achievement for the USPTO and an important steppingstone for women in America’s intellectual property systems,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “The USPTO has remained committed in their efforts to support women in innovation, and this positive momentum will continue to create a more inclusive intellectual property community.”

“Today’s report from the USPTO further highlights the important contributions of women to American innovation,” said Deputy Secretary of Commerce Karen Dunn Kelley. “I applaud the USPTO for their support of women inventors and their work to encourage women to take advantage of our nation’s intellectual property protections, the gold standard for the world. Everyone benefits when women fully participate in our innovation ecosystem.”

“The good news is that efforts to increase the participation of women in the intellectual property system continue to yield results,” said Andrei Iancu, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO. “To retain our nation’s edge as a global innovation leader, we need even broader participation in patenting. That’s why the USPTO has made outreach to underrepresented groups a top priority. We will continue to work with industry and academia to expand participation in the innovation ecosystem. We will also shine a spotlight on the accomplishments of past and present women inventors, and inventors from other underrepresented groups, to inspire a new generation to participate in innovation." 

Access the full report on the USPTO website.

Joint message from the USPTO and the JPO: For the future of innovation

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO) would like to express our most heartfelt sympathies to the victims of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and their families. We sincerely hope that everyone affected recovers soon and that the spread of COVID-19 infection will end as soon as possible.

This unprecedented crisis has had a significant negative impact on the global economy. Amidst this challenging situation, we are once again reminded of the importance of innovations that support our society.

As evidenced by the daily reports around the world, there is no doubt that innovation is a powerful weapon against COVID-19. On countless occasions, humanity has overcome crises throughout history by the development and promotion of innovation.

For example, the fact that working at home through telework and various online services has become more common worldwide, shows that innovations in the field of Information Technology (IT) have become a major foundation of our economy and daily lives. Likewise, medical technologies used to fight the pandemic have been created due to inventions throughout time. This type of development has been made possible by robust intellectual property systems that incentivize and protect innovation.

In this regard, the USPTO and the JPO would like to pay our deep respects to all the inventors around the world who have served as a driving force to overcome crises. Both Offices are committed to supporting inventors by taking all possible measures to ensure that they continue to create.

To achieve this, IP offices around the world, including the USPTO and the JPO, have been taking as many actions as possible, such as flexibilities for affected procedural deadlines, to support inventors and applicants in this situation of global crisis.

In order to support innovation worldwide, the USPTO and the JPO are aware of the importance of promptly establishing stable patent rights.

To achieve these objectives, the USPTO and the JPO have developed a close cooperative relationship over the years. More specifically, in addition to the development of accelerated examination programs, we have worked hand-in-hand in establishing various initiatives to support inventors worldwide. These achievements include: the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) launched in 2006; the U.S.-Japan Collaborative Search Pilot Program; and the Global Dossier Initiative.

Further, the USPTO and the JPO have developed their own databases allowing interested parties to readily access information about patents that are available for licensing. By doing so, the Offices are facilitating the voluntary licensing of patented technologies and the commercialization of inventions effective in combating COVID-19.

The USPTO and the JPO believe we will be able to overcome this crisis by promoting and utilizing innovative technologies. To that end, both Offices are firmly committed to working together to advance initiatives for promoting investment and innovation.

Andrei Iancu,,  USPTO Director                                              MATSUNAGA Akira,   JPO Commissioner

Open the joint message from the USPTO and JPO.

National Summer Teacher Institute

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will conduct its 4th Annual National Summer Teacher Institute on Innovation, STEM, and Intellectual Property July 16-21, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. The program combines experiential training tools, practices, and project-based learning models to support elementary, middle, and high school teachers in incorporating concepts of making, inventing, and innovation into classroom instruction. The central focus of this year's Institute is on the creation and protection of intellectual property—this includes inventions, knowledge discovery, creative ideas, and expressions of the human mind that may have commercial value and are protectable under patent, trademark, copyright, or trade secret laws. Intellectual property will be modeled as both a teaching and learning platform to help inspire and motivate student achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, computer science, and other fields of study such as innovation and entrepreneurship.

Presentation speakers and hands-on workshop instructors will include experts from the USPTO, noted scientists and engineers, and representatives from other Federal Government agencies and non-profit organizations. Participants will be introduced to teacher-friendly instructional tools, lesson strategies, and innovation practices designed to enhance student learning and outcomes in the classroom.

Travel and lodging expenses will be covered for teachers who are selected to participate in this program and reside more than 50 miles from the venue in accordance with Federal Travel Regulations and USPTO travel policy. If you have any questions regarding this program, please contact NSTI_Applications@uspto.gov

To apply: https://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/outreach-and-education/national-summer-teacher-institute

White House Hosting Maker Fair

On June 18, 2014 President Obama will host the first White House Maker Faire to celebrate the accomplishments of innovators and entrepreneurs of all ages and encourage their continued innovation and entrepreneurship. The Administration is working with "companies, mayors, colleges, libraries, museums, and many others" to promote being "makers of things, not just consumers of things."

For those who cannot come to the White House, June 18 will be a nationwide Day of Making. To views suggestions about ways for your community to participate, access the White House blog about this first maker faire.

Innovation Videos

The USPTO, the National Science Foundation, and NBC Learn have collaborated to create a new series called the Science of Innovation. Topics include:

• 3-D Printing
• Smart Concrete
• Self-driving Cars
• Electronic Tattoos
• Fuel Cell Efficiency
• Biometrics
• Biofuels
• Anti-Counterfeiting Devices
• Synthetic Diamonds
• Bionic Limbs
• Innovation

You can also find the link on Fondren's Patent Inventor Resources and Training page under USPTO Online Training.

USPTO/Smithsonian Collaborate to Open an "Innovation Pavilion"

On January 16, 2013 the USPTO announced a collaboration with the Smithsonian to open an "Innovation Pavilion" to be housed in the Smithsonian's Arts and Industries (A&I) Building in Washington, D.C. once it reopens in 2014. The space is designed to "serve as a forum for public discussions, symposiums, workshops, and recognition ceremonies related to American innovation, highlighting the vital role patents play in supporting that innovation." The Smithsonian and USPTO will also collaborate on an Innovation Expo to be held June 20-22, 2013 at the USPTO headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia.

For more information see the press release.

Exhibit at Smithsonian Spotlights American Innovation

According to a USPTO press release, the Smithsonian American Art Museum will host a special exhibit July 15, 2011 - Jan. 8, 2012 spotlighting American innovation. Entitled The Great American Hall of Wonders, the exhibit includes "works of art, mechanical inventions, and scientific discoveries."

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)and the museum have also developed educational outreach programs in conjuction with the exhibit. The programs include "webcast public lectures, an inventors’ symposium and clinic, and hands-on activities for children and families, as well as outreach to schools and professional development workshops for educators."

Technology and Innovation Medal Winners

On September 29, 2008 President Bush will present six individuals and two corporations with the Medal of Technology and Innovation, "the nation's highest honor for technology and scientific achievement." To view a list of the winners and learn more about their innovations, see the August 25, 2008 press release from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Nominations for the National Medal of Technology and Innovation

Do you know an individual, team of up to four people, a company, or a division of a company who has made an outstanding contribution to the economic, environmental, and social well-being of the United States through technological innovations? If so, nominations for the National Medal of Technology and Innovovation (NMTI) are being accepted by the USPTO until May 30, 2008. Guidelines and a nomination form are available at http://www.uspto.gov/nmti/nomination.html.